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ACO 


80  4 


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'TWILL   THE    DOCTOR   COMES;    and   How  to  Help 
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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 


BY 


J.  E.  THOEOLD  EOGERS, 

TooKE  Professor  of  Economic  Sciesce,  Universitt  op  Oxford. 


REVISED  FOR  AMERICAN  READERS. 


NE\V  YORK: 

G.    P.    PUTI^AM'S    SONS. 

FouBTH  Avenue  and  23d  Street. 
1874. 


ICDDLETON  i  CO.,  STEEEOTTPEBS, 
BEIDGEPOKT,  CONN. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


17\.T 


FREFA  CE  TO  THE  AMEBIC  AN  EDITION. 

In  preparing  this  volume  for  Amei'ican  Students,  I 
have  made  no  changes  in  the  original  plan,  and  have 
not  pretended  to  add  any  thing  to  the  clear  and  satisfac- 
tory text  of  the  author.  I  have  merely  translated  his 
references  to  currency,  measurements,  trades,  etc.,  from 
the  English  to  the  American  terms,  and  changed  some 
of  the  more  important  illustrations,  so  as  to  make  them 
apply  to  American  circumstances.  I  do  not  of  course 
suppose  that  the  American  boy  who  will  read  this  vol- 
ume, does  not  understand  what  is  meant  by  a  jraund 
sterling,  or  a  stone  weight,  but  as  the  lesson  to  be  taught 
is  one  of  principles,  and  not  of  comparative  values,  I 
think  the  changes  I  have  made  will  save  him  from  giving 
time  to  any  imnecessary  details. 

The  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  book  are  excellent, 
and  its  teachings  combine  to  a  rare  degree,  simplicity 
and  thoroughness.  A  full  imderstanding  of  the  princi- 
ples it  explains,  will  give  to  our  young  American  stu- 
dents the  basis  of  the  knowledge  that  is  indispensable 
for  the  clear-headed  citizens  and  wise  legislators,  they 
should  aim  to  become. 

a.  H.  p. 

June,  1873. 


PREFACE. 

The  object  of  this  little  book  is  to  give  instruction 
in  the  rudiments  of  social  science,  and  to  do  so  in  such 
language  and  in  such  a  form  as  will  make  the  subject 
clear  to  the  youngest  students.  The  author  has  stated 
what  he  has  to  say  in  the  shape  of  a  series  of  lessons, 
each  of  which  should  be  carefully  read  and  understood 
before  the  pupil  passes  on  to  the  next.  It  is  hoped  that 
when  he  has  read  through  the  whole,  he  will  have  got 
some  insight  into  the  laws  which  regulate  social  life. 

It  does  not  follow  that  knowledge  will  make  the 
person  who  possesses  it  discreet  and  wise ;  but  no  person 
will  be  discreet  and  wise  without  knowledge.  After 
that  training  which  is  necessary  for  each  person  in  order 
that  he  may  earn  his  living,  no  knowledge  can  be  more 
usefully  turned  to  account  than  that  which  explains  the 
circumstances  under  which  men  live  together  in  a  civil- 
ized society,  and  confer  benefits  on  each  other.  It  is 
this  knowledge  which  the  author  hopes  to  have  given 
in  the  following  pages. 

Oxford,  Dec.  i,  1871. 


CONTENTS. 


-o- 


LESSON  L 

PAGE. 

Savage  and  CiTilized  Life 11 

LESSON  n. 
A  Loaf  of  Bread 15 

LESSON  m 
The  Sharing  of  the  Loaf— Eent 19 

LESSON  IV. 
The  Share  of  the  Workman 33 

LESSON  V. 
The  Cotxrse  of  Lnprovement .27 

LESSON  VL 
Variety  of  Employments      .......         31 

LESSON  vn. 

Various  Eates  of  Wages ,,.36 

LESSON  VnL 
Unpaid  Work       .••«•,•••        40 


8  CONTENTS. 

LESSON  IX. 

PAGE. 

Motives  for  Labor 44 

LESSON  X. 
PartnersMps  of  Labor  , 49 

LESSON  XL 
The  Eigbt  of  the  Sellef  to  fix  a  Price 53 

LESSON  xn. 

The  Employer's  "Wages 58 

LESSON  xm. 

The  Use  of  Gold  and  SHver 62 

LESSON  xrv. 

Money 66 

LESSON  XV. 
Substitutes  for  Money 71 

LESSON  XVI. 
Ereedom  and  Slavery 75 

LESSON  xvn. 

Parent  and  Child 80 

LESSON  xvni. 

Public  Education 84 

LESSON  XIX. 
Special  Learning        ......■••89 


CONTENTS.  '  9 


PAGE. 

LESSON  XX. 
Inventions  and  Books 94 


LESSON  XXL 
Restraints  on  Buving  and  Selling 99 

LESSON  xxn. 

Public  Charities 104 

LESSON  XXTTT. 
Tlie  Work  of  Government 109 

LESSON  xxrv. 

Taxes 113 

LESSON  XXV. 
What  do  Taxes  come  from  ? 117 

LESSON  XXVI. 
The  Punishment  of  Crime 121 

LESSON  xxvn. 

The  Principle  of  Punishment 126 

LESSON  XXVHL 
Restraints  on  Freedom 130 

LESSON  XXIX. 
Restraints  on  Callings 134 


LESSON  XXX. 
:e8 
1* 


Laws  Fixing  Prices 138 


10  CONTENTS.  ''^ 

PAGE. 

LESSON  XXXL 
Regulations  on  Professions  ...*..        143 

LESSON  xxxn. 

Eorbidden  Callings 147 

LESSON  XXXTTT. 
Callings  wMch  are  under  a  Police        #  ,  •        •  3~  •        ■"•^^ 

LESSON  XXXIV. 
Poor-Laws        ...•••••••    156 

LESSON  XXXV. 
The  Protection  of  the  Weak        .        .        .        m        m        .        160 

XESSON  XXXVI 
Elmigration      ..«•*••  5»  1^*  .-•   •    ^^'^ 


%      0 


SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 


LESSON  I. 

SAVAGE   AND    CIVILIZED   LIFE. 

Few  of  the  readers  of  this  book  have  not  seen  a 
town,  and  most  of  them  have  probably  lived  in  or  visit- 
ed the  larger  towns  or  cities. 

But  nearly  all  American  boys  and  girls  will  knoAV 
that  a  little  more  than  two  centuries  ago,  there  were 
not  any  cities  or  towns  on  this  continent,  and  the  people 
who  lived  on  it,  the  Indians,  wandered  about  vhe  coun- 
try, chasing  the  wild  animals,  or  fishing,  or  digging  roots, 
in  order  to  get  food. 

In  other  countries,  such  as  England,  France,  or  Ger- 
many, the  time  when  there  were  no  towns  was  a  good 
deal  further  back,  but  in  them  also  some  centuries  ago, 
people  had  to  get  their  living  by  hunting  or  fishing,  or 
by  pasturing  such  flocks  and  herds  as  they  possessed 
Avherever  they  could  find  grass  for  them  to  live  upon. 

In  those  old  days  the  people  who  could  get  their  liv- 
ing in  a  country  like  England  for  instance,  by  the  chase 
or  by  pasturing  cattle,  were  very  few,  not  more  indeed 
than  could  be  reckoned  in  a  middle-sized  town  at  the 
present  day.  Few  as  they  were,  they  were  all  that  could 
live.     If  the  summer  was  very  dry,  or  the  spring  very 


12  SOCIAL  ECONOIIT. 

backward,  many  were  starved.  The  whole  of  England 
and  Wales  in  those  ancient  times  did  not  maintain  a 
hundredth  part  of  the  number  who  live  in  it  at  present, 
and  did  not  maintain  this  hundredth  part  as  securely  and 
as  comfortably  as  every  Englishman  is  maintained  now. 
There  are  parts  of  the  world  where  the  inhabitants  live 
just  as  our  forefathers  lived  in  England  ages  ago,  such  as 
the  Indian  territories  of  the  United  States,  the  greater 
part  of  Africa,  and  large  tracts  in  Asia. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  scantily  settled  and  unculti- 
vated countries  are  said  to  be  savages.  Those  who  live 
in  countries  settled  and  civilized  like  our  own  are  said 
to  be  civilized.  The  savage  is  poor,  ignorant,  and  lives 
from  day  to  day.  The  civilized  man  is,  in  compari- 
son at  least,  rich,  wise,  and  has  made  some  provision 
for  the  future.  What  are  the  causes  which  make  so 
great  a  diiFerence  between  the  condition  of  the  savage 
and  that  of  the  civilized  man  ? 

I  purpose  in  this  little  book  to  give  an  account  of 
some  among  the  causes  which  make  this  mighty  diiier- 
ence.  I  cannot  give  them  all,  for  if  I  tried  to  do  so 
the  book  would  not  be  little,  and  what  is  perhaps  more 
to  the  purpose,  I  should  mix  up  things  which  had  better 
be  kept  separate.  For  example,  good  and  just  laws, 
wise  and  lair  government  on  the  part  of  rulers,  virtuous 
and  honest  action  on  the  part  of  subjects,  are  powerful 
causes  of  civilization.  But  I  am  not  writing  a  book 
about  law,  or  government,  or  moral  conduct :  I  shall 
only  try  to  show  what  is  the  reason  why  a  hundred  civ- 
ilized people  can  live  on  the  space  of  ground  which  will 
hardly  keep  one  savage  alive ;  why  it  is  civilized  people 
can  live  together  in  great  towns,  and  are  the  better  for 
theu"  neighbors,  while  a  savage  man  is  anxious  to  have  as 


SAVAGE  AND   CIVILIZED   LIFE.  13 

few  neighbors  near  him  as  possible.  Stated  in  a  verj'' 
few  words,  the  savage  is  obliged  to  do  every  thing  for 
himself,  and  the  civilized  man  is  able  to  get  an  mfinite 
number  of  things  done  for  him. 

The  principal  necessaries  of  life  are  food,  clothing, 
lodging.  If  we  add  to  these  the  means  of  moving  from 
place  to  place,  Ave  shall  find  that  most  labor  is  given 
with  a  vicAv  to  satisfying  those  wants,  either  immediate- 
ly or  indirectly.  For  example,  a  farmer  who  sows  a 
field  with  wheat  is  immediately  engaged  in  the  supply 
of  food,  while  the  smith  who  constructs  a  plough  is  in- 
directly concerned  with  the  same  service.  There  is  the 
same  difiierence  between  one  M'ho  shears  wool,  or  grows 
cotton,  and  another  who  makes  the  weaving  machine 
wherewith  to  spin  either  substance  into  cloth. 

The  savage  man  has  to  provide  himself  with  food, 
and  with  the  implements  or  Aveapons  necessary  to  obtain 
food,  to  make  himself  clothing,  and  to  manufacture  the 
tools  needed  for  piecing  the  skins  together  Avhich  he 
Avears.  But  the  civilized  man  gets  his  fellow-man  to  do 
a  vast  number  of  these  services  for  him,  and  does  some 
service  himself,  in  return  for  which  he  is  able  to  get  such 
conA^eniences  as  he  requires.  And  ho  gets  Avhat  he 
needs  more  regulai-ly,  more  easily,  more  plentifully,  and 
more  cheaply  than  he  Avould  if  he  lived  a  savage  life. 

As  the  civilized  man  gets  what  he  Avauts  more  cheap- 
ly than  a  savage  does,  so  he  gets  it  more  regularly.  A 
great  city  like  New  York  depends  for  its  food,  for  the 
materials  of  the  clothes  Avhich  its  inhabitants  Avear,  and 
of  the  houses  in  Avhich  they  live,  on  other  regions. 
It  is,  so  to  speak,  Avholly  dependent  on  other  places  for 
all  Avhich  its  inhabitants  need.  But  it  fjets  them  re<rii- 
larly — with  the  exactness  and  precision,  as  people  say, 


14  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

of  clockwork.  The  case  is  very  different  with  those 
who  live  a  savage  life,  or  even  with  those  who  are  only 
partly  civilized.  Such  people  are  liable  to  sudden  ca- 
lamities. A  famine  comes,  and  half  the  people  perish  : 
sickness  overtakes  them,  and  the  same  result  ensues. 

Again,  you  will  see  people  going  out  to  their  work 
— engaged  in  the  business  of  their  shops  and  counting 
houses — occupied  in  a  number  of  different  industries. 
They  are  eager  in  carrying  on  their  callmg,  and  have 
no  anxiety,  except  as  to  the  best  way  to  do  that  which 
lies  before  them.  But  in  countries  where  men  do  not 
understand  the  laws  which  are  needful  for  the  security 
of  society,  violence  breeds  suspicion  and  fear,  and  men 
are  hindered  in  their  calling  by  the  necessity  of  defend- 
ing themselves. 

It  is  plain, *then,  that  there  are  conditions  of  human 
life  where  men  are  unskilful ;  where  the  means  of  life 
are  irregular ;  where  labor,  unless  the  workman  carries 
arms  and  is  suspicious  and  watchful,  is  wdiolly  unsafe. 
Now  the  discovery  of  the  means  by  which  the  largest 
number  of  j)ersons  can  live  in  the  greatest  plenty,  can 
look  forward  to  the  greatest  regularity,  and  can  do  their 
work  in  the  greatest  safety,  is  the  object  of  what  is  called 
"  social  science." 


LESSON  n. 

A    LOAF     OF     BEEAD. 

If  you  take  a  loaf  of  bread,  and  think  of  the  persons 
"who  are  set  to  work  in  order  to  produce  or  suj^ply  tliat 
loaf,  you  will  find  that  the  number  of  such  persons  is  very 
large.  The  three  principal  persons  are  the  farmer,  the 
miller,  and  the  baker.  But  the  farmer  almost  always  em- 
ploys labor,  both  of  man  and  beast,  in  order  to  get  his  crop 
in.  He  also  uses  implements  which  are  made  by  the  la- 
bor of  the  carpenter,  the  smith,  and  in  our  time  by  the  ma- 
chinist, for  the  employment  of  finished  macMnes  in  hus- 
bandry is  becoming  very  common.  The  presence  of  the 
smith  calls  into  activity  the  work  of  those  who  raise  iron 
and  coal.  Another  kind  of  skill  is  needed  in  order  to 
work  iron  and  coal  profitably — to  dii'ect  the  labor  of  those 
who  are  enejaofcd  in  those  industries. 

Again,  the  miller  requires  the  service  of  those  who 
quarry  to  supply  him  with  the  best  stones  with  which  to 
gi-ind  his  flour — that  of  the  weaver  to  supply  him  with  the 
cloth,  or  of  the  worker  in  metals,  who  manufactures  the 
metal  sieve  through  which  the  flour  is  sifted,  and  of  anoth- 
er kind  of  weav^"  "'vho  makes  the  sack  in  wliich  both  corn 
and  flour  are  stored.  The  mill  hi  which  he  carries  on  his 
work  is  the  product  of  another  set  of  laborers — the  car- 
penter, tlie  joiner,  the  wheelwright,  the  mason,  the  brick- 


IG  SOCIAL  EC0N03JT. 

layer.  If  the  power  -u-hich  lie  employs  is  water,  a  special 
kind  of  skill  is  needed  in  order  to  use  the  force  of  run- 
ning or  falling  water ;  if  it  be  wind,  he  will  want  the  ser- 
vices of  the  weaver  of  such  cloth  as  catches  the  wind ; 
if  it  be  steam,  a  still  more  numerous  and  more  scientific 
class  of  workmen  must  be  employed. 

The  baker,  again,  needs  his  assistants  before  he  can 
carry  on  his  calUng.  If  he  prepares  his  bread  in  wooden 
vessels,  he  calls  in  the  help  of  the  cooper.  The  brick- 
maker  or  quarryman  supplies  the  bricks  or  stones  of  which 
his  oven  is  built ;  or  in  case  the  oven  be  made  of  iron,  the 
miner  and  the  smith  must  work  to  get  the  materials  and 
fashion  them.  If  the  bread  be  baked  in  some  shape  or 
moidd,  other  kinds  of  labor  are  needed.  If  it  be  made 
by  machinery — as  the  best  bread  is  now  made — another 
set  of  persons  is  called  on  to  exercise  their  industry.  If 
the  baker  weighs  his  bread  before  he  sells  it — as  he  is 
bound  to  do — another  set  of  persons  supplies  the  weights 
and  scales;  and  so  on  with  the  materials  of  which  those 
implements  are  made. 

For  reasons  which  will  be  given  further  on,  it  is  not 
found  possible  to  carry  out  their  transactions  without 
money.  Money  is  made  of  metals,  which  are,  for  the  most 
part,  discovered  and  worked  in  distant  and  barren  re- 
gions. Here,  then,  is  another  field  of  labor.  The  miner 
is  supported  by  food  and  other  necessaries,  which  are  car- 
ried to  him  in  ships.  The  building  of  a  ship  calls  into  ac- 
tivity a  whole  host  of  industries,  many  of  which  the  ex- 
perience or  knowledge  of  my  readers  will  remind  them 
of  When  the  gold  and  silver  are  brought  to  this  country, 
other  people  must  be  set  to  work,  in  order  that  the  met 
als  may  be  refined,  cut  into  pieces,  and  stamped  as  coins ; 
and  a  very  nice  and  delicate  process  the  work  of  coining  is 


A   LOAF   OF   BREAD.  17 

Now  I  have  only  named  a  few  of  those  persons  who 
are  engaged  in  producing  a  very  simple  necessary  of 
life. 

But  besides  those  who  labor  mostly  with  their  hands, 
there  is  another  class  of  men  who  labor  mostly  with  their 
heads — the  class  of  employers  or,  as  they  are  sometimes 
called,  capitalists.  These  men  are  engaged  in  directing 
the  labor  of  others,  or  ui  studymg  the  market,  and  in 
keeping  iij)  a  continual  supply  of  goods  at  as  steady  a 
price  as  possible.  Unless  persons  were  found  to  devote 
themselves  to  trade,  the  advantage  of  a  steady,  regular 
supply  of  the  necessaries  and  conveniences  of  life  would 
not  be  forthcoming. 

I  said  above  tliat  a  savage  was  ignorant.  He  is  a 
savage  because  he  is  ignorant.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  keep  the  advantages  of  civilization  imless  each  succes- 
sive generation  were  taught.  If  any  society  of  men 
were  to  resolve  not  to  give  any  instruction  to  their 
children — not  to  communicate  to  their  descendants  what 
they  know  themselves,  such  a  society  would  in  a  short 
time  relapse  into  the  condition  of  savages.  Nations  are 
civilized  because  they  inherit  the  knowledge  as  well  as 
the  property  of  their  ancestors.  Some  of  this  knowl- 
edge is  imparted  by  the  skilled  Avorkman,  either  with  or 
without  the  formality  of  apprenticeship;  but  a  great 
deal  of  the  knowledge  is  given  by  the  schoolmaster,  who 
therefore  discharges  a  most  important  duty  to  future  so- 
ciety. 

.     There  are,  then,  a  very  large  number  of  persons  en- 
gaged in  producing  and  supplyuig  a  loaf  of  bread. 

Perhaps  my  readers  will  wish  to  know  why  it  is  tliat 
I  have  chosen  a  loaf  of  bread  in  order  to  illustrate  tlie 
great  fact,  that  a  civilized  society  is  united  by  the  mu- 


18  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

tual  services  which  its  several  members  render  to  each 
other, 

I  began  by  stating  that  the  same  space  of  earth  could 
maintain  a  hundred  times  more  civilized  people  than  it 
could  savages ;  in  other  words,  it  produces  a  hundred 
times  more  food  besides  producing  it  with  far  greater 
regularity.  The  number  of  people  who  can  live  in  any 
country  or  in  any  town  is  measured  by  the  number  of 
loaves  which  this  people  can  produce  or  can  pui'cliase. 
If  the  whole  of  America  were  as  densely  peopled  as 
New  York  is,  it  would  not  contain  too  many  persons, 
provided  those  who  Hved  in  it  could  procm-e  necessary 
sustenance.  There  is,  then,  a  great  deal  to  be  learnt 
from  a  loaf  of  bread. 


LESSON  in. 

THE   SHARIIS^G   OF  THE   LOAF — REXT. 

Evert  one  of  the  persons  who  assists  in  supplying  a 
loaf  of  bread  is  paid  out  of  the  price  of  the  loaf  The 
portion  which  some  of  these  persons  receive  is,  no 
doubt,  excessively  small,  but  still  it  is  received.  The 
price  is  said  to  be  distributed  among  the  several  persons 
who  contribute  towards  the  loaf  A  portion  of  the 
price,  however,  is  paid  to  one  person  who  does  not  con- 
tribute any  thing ;  this  is  the  person  who  owns  the  land. 
It  mixst  not  be  supposed  that  he  has  no  right  to  get  it ; 
it  is  impossible  to  prevent  his  having  it.  If  any  other 
person — whether  it  be  the  community  at  large  or  the 
farmer  who  occupies  the  land — were  to  take  this  por- 
tion, it  would  only  mean  that  the  commmiity  made 
itself  the  landowner,  or  that  the  farmer  was  turned  into 
a  landowner. 

Let  us  see  how  this  comes  to  pass.  "We  shall  be 
able  to  discover  it  more  easily,  if  we  take  the  case  of 
some  country  which  is  differently  situated  from  our 
own. 

However  valuable,  useful,  or  even  necessary  a  thing 
may  be,  it  bears  no  price  if  every  person  can  get  as  much 
as  he  pleases  of  it  without  any  trouble.  Without  air  we 
could  not  live  two  minutes ;  but,  as  under  ordinary  cir- 


20  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

cumstauces,  everybody  can  get  as  mucli  air  as  he  likes, 
he  need  pay  nothing  for  it.  So  with  water,  though  in 
less  degree.  In  the  United  States,  and  in  the  country 
parts  of  Europe,  water  bears  no  price,  because  it  can 
easily  be  had  for  the  getting ;  but  in  the  great  towns  of 
Europe,  especially  in  such  a  town  as  London,  water  does 
bear  a  price,  though  the  j)rice  is  so  low  for  those  who 
want  to  drink  it,  that  no  one  but  a  churl  would  think  he 
did  you  any  great  favor  in  giving  you  a  glass  of  water. 

Now  let  us  take  the  case  of  the  middle  island  in  the 
New  Zealand  group.  The  first  settlers  in  that  island 
found  a  few  savages  there,  but  only  a  few.  The  climate 
of  the  island  is  very  like  that  of  England,  and  the  land  is 
as  fit  for  ordinary  crops  as  that  of  our  own  country. 
Much,  no  doubt,  was  covered  by  wood,  but  there  was 
abundance  of  open  groimd. 

As  any  person  who  came  thither  could  have  as  much 
land  as  he  wished,  land  was  worth  nothing ;  and  no  bit 
of  land  was  more  desirable  than  any  other  bit,  or  the 
most  desirable  bits  were  far  in  excess  of  the  wants  of 
the  colonists.  But  in  course  of  time  a  chajige  occurs. 
Some  bits  get  to  be  more  desii'able  than  others.  The 
first  place  in  which  such  a  change  takes  place  is  in  the 
toAvns.  A  road  is  made,  and  a  place  near  the  road  is 
Avorth  more  than  a  place  further  from  it.  The  town  is  a 
seaport,  and  the  land  near  the  sea  is  worth  more  than 
that  which  is  more  distant.  A  market  is  set  up,  and  a 
plot  near  the  market  is  more  desirable  than  one  which  is 
less  convenient.  Immediately  on  such  occasions,  the 
land  which  is  thus  favored  yields  more  advantages  tlian 
other  land  does,  or,  in  other  words,  begins  to  yield  a 
rent. 

In  all  newly-settled  countries  reut  arises  first  in  the 


THE  SHAKING  OF  THE  LOAF— EENT.     21 

towns,  since  the  canses  which  make  rent  begin  here 
fii-st.  In  course  of  time  the  influence  of  this  cause  is 
rendered  wider.  The  agricultural  land  near  the  town 
begins  to  be  worth  more  than  that  which  is  further  oft". 
It  may  not  grow  more  corn,  but  it  costs  less  to  brhig 
what  it  grows  to  market.  It  may  have  no  greater  nat- 
ural fertility,  but  it  is  at  a  shorter  distance  from  the 
place  whence  it  can  get  the  means  of  artificial  fertility. 
The  occupier  of  «uch  land  finds  an  easier  market  for  his 
produce.  He  is  put  to  less  cost  in  carrying  manures  to 
his  farm,  and  conveying  machinery  thither.  If  he  tried  to 
sell  his  farm,  he  could  get  a  price  for  it,  which  would  be 
beyond  the  value  of  what  he  has  laid  out  on  it ;  and  the 
fact  that  he  could  get  such  a  price  shows  that  it  is  pay- 
ing a  rent. 

By-and-by  other  farms,  as  the  people  get  more  nu- 
merous, begin  to  share  in  these  advantages.  It  does 
not  follow  that  farm  produce  gets  a  penny  dearer;  it 
may  even  get  cheaper.  It  very  often  happens,  in  coim- 
tries  such  as  I  have  described,  that  while  land  yields  no 
rent  whatever,  the  produce  of  land  is  exceedingly 
dear.  In  other  words,  the  prices  of  wheat,  butter,  wool, 
and  a  host  of  other  things,  have  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  the  rent  of  land. 

In  the  end,  all  the  land  of  the  country  which  can  re- 
turn any  produce  to  labor  is  occupied.  It  is  still  the 
business  of  the  farmer  to  turn  his  land  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage, and  as  he  does  so,  the  owner  of  the  land  shares 
in  the  advantage  of  the  farmer's  skill.  So  the  shop- 
keeper tries,  in  so  far  as  the  place  where  he  carries  on 
his  business  will  aid  him,  to  get  the  greatest  advantage 
out  of  his  shop ;  and  if  the  advantage  does  depend  on 
the  situation  of  his  shop,  his  landlord  Avill  sliare  the 


22  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

gam.  If  his  landlord  did  not  share  it,  tlie  occupier 
would  keep  it  to  himself.  But  being  better  off  than  his 
neighbor  is,  by  the  possession  of  this  advantage  of  situa- 
tion, he  would  be  able  to  sell  his  advantage — that  is  to 
say,  he  would  become  a  landowner. 

Now  this  is  the  way  in  which  rent  arises.  Nor  is 
there  any  limit  to  its  increase,  as  long  as  the  intelligence 
of  men  is  devoted  towards  improving  husbandry,  and 
the  number  of  people  who  live  on  farm  produce  in- 
creases with  these  improvements.  In  such  a  country  as 
England  land  has  become  exceedingly  valuable,  partly 
because  agriculture  is  practised  so  well  in  it,  partly 
because  the  trade  of  the  country  has  so  mightily  in- 
creased, and  therefore  people  are  willing  to  give  so 
much  for  the  right  of  occupying  laud  which  lies  advan- 
tageously for  trade. 

The  owner  of  land  therefore  gets  a  share  in  that 
which  labor  pi'oduces  without  having  contributed  to 
that  labor.  But  he  does  not  get  it  by  violence  or 
wrong ;  it  comes  to  Mm  by  a  law  of  nature,  since  what- 
e^■er  is  scarce  and  useful  will  fetch  a  price.  Now  Avhen 
land  is  fully  settled  it  begins  to  be  scarce,  and  as  in  or- 
der for  man  to  live  he  must  get  food  by  husbandry, 
there  can  be  nothing  more  useful  than  that  which  sup- 
plies the  means  of  life. 


LESSON  IV. 

THE   SHARE   OF  THE   WOEKMAIS'. 

I  HAVE  shown  you  how  it  is  that  the  owner  of  land 
gets  a  portion  of  the  pi'ice  at  which  the  loaf  is  sold  :  the 
rest  of  the  price  is  divided  among  those  who  work. 

To  work  means  to  nse  one's  bodily  powers  or  one's 
powers  of  mind.  Of  course  no  one  can  use  his  bodily 
strength  to  a  purpose,  in  any  calling  whatever,  unless  he 
brhigs  his  mind  to  bear  on  his  Avork ;  nor  can  the  clev- 
erest and  quickest  thinker  dispense  with  some  bodily 
effort.  When,  therefore,  we  say  that  one  man's  labor 
is  bodily  and  another's  is  mental,  we  merely  mean  that 
the  work  is  more  of  the  body  in  the  one  case,  and  more 
of  the  mind  in  the  other.  Useful  qualities  of  mind  are 
rarer  than  iiseful  qualities  of  body,  and  are  therefore 
more  costly.  The  manager  of  a  business  is  better  paid 
than  a  common  workman  is,  because  his  skill  is  scarcer. 
A  great  lawyer  or  a  wise  physician  is  more  highly  i^aid 
than  a  person  of  ordinary  abilities  in  either  of  those  call- 
ings is,  because  great  powers  in  eftch  of  those  profes- 
sions are  rare,  and  the  service  which  each  of  those  per- 
sons renders  is  very  much  sought  after.  There  is  a  sort 
of  fertility  of  men's  minds  very  like  the  fertility  of  cer- 
tain fields.  In  places  where  wine  is  grown,  one  spot  of 
land  will  produce  wine  fifty  times  as  valuable  as  that 


24  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

which  comes  from  another  spot,  which  to  all  appearance 
is  of  just  the  same  quality;  so  the  work  of  one  man  may 
be  paid  for  at  lifty  times  the  rate  at  which  another  man's 
work  is  paid,  simply  because  people  find  out  that  it  is 
worth  fifty  times  as  much. 

It  is  common  to  say  that  such  and  such  a  person 
has  put  so  much  Ttioney  or  capital  into  a  workshop  or 
business.  This  only  means  that  he  has  put  so  much 
work  into  it,  though  the  work  is  shown  in  different  ways 
and  under  difli'erent  shapes.  I  will  try  to  make  this  clear 
to  you. 

With  one  exception,  and  I  have  explained  this  ex- 
ception in  the  last  lesson,  every  thing  valuable  gets  its 
worth  because  work  is  expended  on  it.  If  the  work- 
man has  given  his  work  wisely,  the  price  of  what  he  sells 
agrees  with  the  pains  he  has  been  at  to  produce  that 
which  he  sells.  If  he  makes  that  which  nobody  wants, 
he  will  have  wasted  his  labor  altogether.  If  he  makes 
more  than  is  wanted,  he  will  have  wasted  some  of  his 
labor.  If  he  takes  more  time  to  make  it  than  other 
people  do,  he  will  give  more  work  for  less  price  than 
other  workmen  do.  Now  everybody  wishes  to  get  as 
much  as  he  can  for  his  work,  and  to  work  as  little  as  he 
can  for  what  he  gets. 

These  are  very  plain  facts,  but  they  have  been  the 
causes  which  have  led  to  that  result  of  which  I  spoke  at 
first — that  in  the  pr^ent  day  a  hundred  persons  can  get 
their  living  where  some  centuries  ago  hardly  one  person 
could  live. 

The  reason  why  a  piece  of  gold,  roughly  speaking,  is 
worth  fifteen  times  as  much  as  a  piece  of  silver  of  the 
same  weight,  and  tweh' e  hundred  times  as  much  as  a 
piece  of  copper  of  the  same  weight,  is  that  on  the  whole 


THE   SHARE   OF   THE  WORKMAN.  25 

it  takes  fifteen  and  twelve  liimdred  times  as  much  work 
to  get  a  pound  of  gold  as  it  does  the  same  weights  of 
silver  and  copper. 

The  reason  why  one  house  in  a  street  is  worth  a 
thousand  dollars,  and  another  house  in  the  same  street 
is  worth  two  thousand,  is  that  the  second  cost  twice  as 
much  to  build  as  the  other  did. 

The  reason  why  a  himdredweight  of  wheat  is  gene- 
rally worth  half  as  much  again  as  a  hundredweight  of 
barley,  is  the  fact  that  it  generally  costs  half  as  much 
more  labor  or  expense  to  grow  the  former  than  it  does 
to  grow  the  latter. 

The  reason  why  one  kind  of  manual  labor  is  worth 
twenty-five  cents  a  day,  and  another  kind  is  worth  a 
dollar,  is  because  it  has  cost  so  much  more  to  prepare 
the  latter  kind  of  workman  than  it  has  to  bring  up  the 
former. 

In  brief,  the  value  or  price  of  any  thing,  whether  it 
be  work  done  or  labor  to  be  hired,  agrees  mth  the  cost 
of  making  the  thing  or  prepai-ing  the  laborer. 

Nobody  who  wishes  to  get  his  living  by  any  calluig 
betakes  himself  to  making  that  which  nobody  wants.  It 
would  be  waste  of  labor  to  make  parlor  grates  in  a 
tropical  climate,  or  sun-blinds  in  an  arctic  one.  It  is 
true  that  many  people  get  their  living  by  making  or  sup- 
plying things  which  others  would  be  far  better  without  ; 
but  there  are  many  things  which  people  wish  for,  and 
sacrifice_^a  great  deal  for,  though  their  use  is  miscliievous 
or  even  ruinous. 

Again,  if  more  of  any  article  is  made  than  is  general- 
ly wanted,  some  of  the  labor  is  wasted.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  more  cotton  or  woollen  cloth  is  made  than 
people  want  to  buy.  But  this  evil  soon  rights  itself 
2 


26  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

The  commonest  and  worst  case  is  when  too  many  peo- 
l^le  enter  into  any  calling.  Thus  it  is  said  that  at  pres- 
ent there  are  more  tailors  and  shoemakers  than  are 
needed  to  make  clothes  and  shoes.  Unfortunately, 
there  have  been  for  many  a  year  too  many  needle- 
women. Now  when  too  many  people  are  engaged  in 
any  calling,  they  will  either  get  low  wages  or  irregular 
employment.  It  is  as  plain  as  figures  can  show  that  if 
there  be  only  work  for  three,  and  six  seek  work,  there 
are  only  two  courses  open  for  them :  either  the  six  must 
work  so  cheaply  as  to  induce  employers  to  give  them 
full  work,  or  each  must  work  half-time. 

Lastly,  the  workman  may  take  too  much  time  at  his 
work.  He  may  be  idle,  or  unskilful,  or  weak,  may  have 
bad  tools,  or  not  possess  improved  tools.  In  working 
land  a  plough  is  better  than  a  spade,  a  steam  cultivator 
better  than  a  plough.  In  spinning  yarn  a  hand- wheel  is 
better  than  a  spindle,  a  spinning-jenny  better  than  a 
hand-wheel.  An  ill-fed  workman  is  less  profitable  than 
a  well-fed  one,  often  even  if  the  latter  is  paid  double  the 
former's  wages,  for  low  wages  is  very  often  another 
name  for  dear  labor. 


LESSON"  Y. 

THE    COURSE    OF   IMPROVEMENT. 

Ijf  the  last  lesson  it  was  stated  that  everybody  wish- 
es to  get  as  much  as  he  can  for  his  work,  and  to  work  as 
little  as  he  can  for  what  he  gets.  When  I  say  that  he 
wishes  to  work  as  little  as  he  can,  I  don't  mean  that  he 
wishes  to  tm-n  out  an  inferior  article,  but  that  he  wants 
to  supply  an  article  equally  good  with  that  which  his 
neighbor  supplies,  but  at  less  cost  to  himseLC 

There  is  notliing  which  has  helped  the  progress  of 
mankind  more  than  this  motive  or  impulse.  It  has 
caused  every  kind  of  improvement  in  the  manufacture 
of  useful  things.  It  has  led  men,  with  greater  or  less 
success,  to  devote  themselves  to  that  calling  for  which 
they  find  themselves  most  fitted.  In  seeking  their  own 
good  they  have  done  the  best  service  to  their  fellow-men. 

I  cannot  illustrate  what  I  have  said  better  than  by 
referring  to  the  progress  of  agriculture.  Two  or  three 
centuries  ago  the  art  of  the  farmer  was  very  rude.  He 
reaped  a  very  scanty  return  for  his  seed;  he  knew 
nothing  about  those  roots  on  which  cattle  are  maintained 
in  the  winter-time,  and  his  stock  of  animals  was  coarse 
and  lean.  But  he  was  as  diligent  and  thrifty  in  his  call- 
ing as  he  now  is.  He  paid  rent,  and  got  his  living  by 
his  work  on  the  farm. 


28  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

The  first  discovery  he  made  was  the  value  of  turnijjs 
and  carrots.  Before  he  found  out  the  use  of  these  roots 
he  had  only  a  little  coarse  hay  to  feed  his  cattle  on  in 
the  winter.  In  consequence,  towards  autumn  it  used  to 
he  the  custom  to  kill  all  the  animals  who  could  not  be 
kept  through  the  winter,  and  the  people  lived  on  salted 
provisions  for  several  months.  Now  he  is  able  to  keep 
his  stock,  and  get  fresh  meat  all  the  year  round.  But 
the  more  animals  that  can  be  kept  on  a  farm,  the  more 
grain  can  be  grown ;  and  the  increase  of  live  stock  led  to 
an  increase  in  the  yield  of  corn.  Next — always  with  the 
same  motive,  to  get  the  greatest  return  at  the  least  pos- 
sible cost — the  farmer  began  to  think  what  were  the 
best  kinds  of  grass  on  which  to  feed  his  stock,  and  which 
could  be  made  into  hay.  Thus  he  sowed  clover  and 
rye  grass,  and  other  so-called  grasses.  More  feed  and 
more  stock  followed.  By-and-by  he  began  to  choose 
his  stock  of  cattle  and  sheep.  He  found  that  some 
breeds  yielded  more  profit  than  others,  and  he  selected 
these  for  his  farm.  Then  he  studied  the  land  which  he 
tilled,  and  found  that  draining  would  better  this  field, 
and  chalk  would  better  that.  Then  he  learned  the  use 
of  artificial  manures,  as  certain  substances  are  called. 
Lastly — always  with  the  same  motive — he  began  to  use 
better  and  more  powerful  instruments  for  stirring  the 
ground,  for  reaping  or  mowing  the  produce,  and  for 
threshing  the  seed. 

The  end  of  all  this  has  been  that  the  land  yields  five 
times  as  much  produce  as  it  did  in  the  days  before  these 
discoveries  were  made.  The  motive  for  these  discov- 
eries was  the  expectation  of  greater  profit  on  labor — 
i.e.,  the  farmer's  own  interest.  This  he  furthered  in  the 
first  instance.     But  the  nation  at  large  had  its  advan- 


THE  COURSE  OF  IMPROVEMENT.  29 

tage  in  greater  plenty,  in  more  regular  supply,  and  there- 
fore in  the  means  for  maintaining  a  large  number  of  per- 
sons. The  landowner  got  his  advantage  in  the  increase 
of  his  rent,  wliich  kept  growing,  for  the  reasons  given  in 
the  last  lesson  but  one. 

The  same  results  have  occurred  in  manufactures. 
The  inhabitants  of  any  country  must  live  on  its  produce, 
or  be  able,  in  case  they  are  too  numerous  for  the  land 
of  the  country  to  maintain  them,  to  get  the  produce  of 
other  coimtries  in  exchange  for  Avhat  they  make.  Now 
it  is  clear,  if  agriculture  is  so  backward  that  everybody's 
time  is  occupied  in  tilling  the  land,  while  the  produce  is 
only  just  sufficient  to  keep  alive  those  who  are  engaged 
in  tillage,  that  nobody  can  betake  himself  to  any  other 
calling.  And  conversely,  if  the  art  of  agriculture  is  so 
advanced  that  a  fifth  part  of  the  people  can  produce  the 
food  which  is  required  for  all,  four-fifths  of  the  people 
may  be  employed  in  some  other  calling,  and  many  of 
these,  imder  certain  cu'cumstances,  need  do  no  work 
at  all. 

Now  the  manufacturer  is  open  to  the  same  influence 
which  moves  the  farmer.     He  makes  cloth,  for  example. 

If  he  can  lessen  his  own  cost  or  labor  he  will  get  a 
greater  return  for  his  labor ;  so  he  eagerly  welcomes  all 
machines  which  shorten  labor  or  lessen  cost.  Part  of 
this  extra  advantage  he  keeps  for  himself,  part  he  bestows 
on  the  public  by  lessening  the  price  of  that  which  he 
makes.  At  the  present  time  it  is  probable  that  it  does 
not  take  a  fiftieth  part  of  the  time  and  trouble  to  make 
a  yard  of  cloth  that  it  did  in  the  days  when  farmers  be- 
gan to  improve  agriculture.  Meanwhile  the  peojile  at 
large  have  got  better  and  cheaper  clothing. 

When  we  think  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 


30  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

industiy  of  any  society  of  men  is  carried  on,  we  slial. 
constantly  discover  that  while  men  are  endeavoring,  by 
just  and  lawful  means — that  is,  without  violence,  imfair- 
ness,  or  dishonesty — to  further  their  own  interests,  they 
always  further  the  interests  of  others  also ;  and  the  rea- 
son why  this  always  takes  place  is  that  they  who  are  en- 
gaged in  honest  industry  are  trying  to  do  their  neighbors 
a  service.  It  is  true  that  they  exj^ect  some  other  service 
in  return ;  but  the  exchange  of  these  services  is  a  mutual 
advantage.  If  I  have  made  a  pair  of  boots,  and  my  neigh- 
bor has  made  a  table,  and  Ave  agree  to  exchange  these  two 
useful  articles,  the  fact  of  our  making  the  exchange  means 
that  I  prefer  the  table  to  the  boots,  and  he  prefers  the 
boots  to  the  table.  We  both  gain :  we  should  not  make 
the  exchange  if  each  did  not  see  his  own  good  in  the 
bargain. 

Plain  as  this  fact  is,  it  has  taken  a  very  long  time  to 
make  it  plain.  What  is  true  of  the  bootmaker  and  the 
cabinet-maker  is  true  of  all  the  people  who  live  together 
and  trade  together  in  any  one  country;  it  is  true  of  the 
trade  which  is  carried  on  between  country  and  country.  It 
is  no  honest  man's  real  interest  to  make  his  neighbors  poor 
and  miserable  :  his  best  chance  is  in  their  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. But  nations  have  not  yet  leai'ned  this  truth.  They 
still  put  hindrances  between  themselves  and  other  nations. 

What  should  we  thmk  of  a  slioj)keeper  who  wished 
to  sell  his  own  goods,  and  yet  paid  a  policeman  to  prevent 
the  people  of  another  village  from  coming  to  buy  of  him, 
and  sell  to  him  ?  Now  this  is  just  what  a  country  does 
which  prohibits  or  fetters  trade  with  other  coimtiies. 


LESSON  YI. 

VAEIETT   OF  EMPLOTME]SrTS. 

The  more  employment  is  divided,  the  greater  is  the 
skill  of  those  who  addict  themselves  to  a  single  employ- 
ment. "  Practice  makes  perfect,"  says  the  proverb.  No 
one  can  be  dexterous  without  being  diligent.  By  force 
of  habit,  persons  are  able  to  do  things  so  quickly  and  so 
exactly,  that  they  who  do  not  possess  the  knack  wonder 
how  the  thing  can  be  done  at  all.  Biit  quickness  and 
exactness  mean  cheapness,  and  contribute  to  what  I  have 
called  the  greatest  amount  of  work  with  the  least  pos- 
sible labor.  If  everybody  had  to  do  every  thing  for 
himself,  he  could  not  do  each  thing  nearly  so  well 
and  nearly  so  easily  as  would  be  done  if  one  man 
made  it  his  business  to  make  one  tiling,  or  even  part  of 
one  thing.  It  is  very  useful  to  know  how  to  do  a  great 
many  things:  it  is  wise  to  try  to  get  one's  living  by 
making  one  thing. 

Nature  points  this  out  to  us  on  a  large  scale.  Differ- 
ent countries  have  different  products.  One  region  grows 
cotton  and  tea,  another  wheat,  another  rice,  another 
spices,  another  wine  and  oil.  One  country  possesses  coal, 
another  mines  of  metals.  This  division  of  material  qual- 
ities points  to  a  division  of  industries  and  employments, 
and  an  exchange  of  the  benefits  which  those  industries 
procure. 


32  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

Similar  facts  apply  to  the  inhabitants  of  any  one  coun- 
try. In  nearly  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  agriculture 
is  still  the  prevailing  industry ;  but  while  in  the  Northera 
and  Western  States  the  inhabitants  have  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  growing  of  wheat,  oats  and  corn,  in  the 
Southern  States  the  farmers  produce  principally  cotton, 
rice,  and  sugar.  In  some  parts  of  the  country,  moreover, 
while  a  large  portion  of  the  territory  is  still  devoted  to 
farms,  a  largo  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  are  engaged 
in  other  employments,  as  in  New  England  in  manufactur- 
ing, and  in  Pennsylvania  and  other  States  in  mining  and 
working  metals.  The  United  States  have  a  long  Une 
of  sea-coast,  containing  many  harbors,  while  the  sea  in 
the  neighborhood  of  some  parts  of  this  coast  swarms 
with  fish.  Hence  the  callings  of  the  sailor  and  the  fish- 
erman. 

Again,  there  are  occupations  which  seem  to  be 
proper  to  sex  and  age.  It  seems  natural  that  men 
should  do  particular  kinds  of  work — as  that  of  a  collier, 
a  glassblower,  a  smith.  No  one  would  like  to  see 
women  engaged  in  these  callings.  Again,  some  occu- 
pations seem  peculiarly  fitted  to  women — as  that  of 
teaching  children,  sewing,  and  domestic  labor.  The 
difference  of  fitness  does  not  lie  in  the  hardness  of  the 
work.  Labor  in  a  harvest  field  is  hard  enough,  but  in 
most  coimtries  of  Europe,  in  the  agricultural  districts 
w^omen  bear  a  part  in  this. 

Some  kinds  of  work  are  undertaken  by  young  per- 
sons. It  is  cruel  and  foohsh  to  give  children  hard  work. 
It  is  too  great  a  strain  on  their  powers,  and  therefore 
stimts  their  growth  and  damages  their  health.  It  inter- 
feres with  theu-  school-time  and  learning,  and  therefore 
stunts  then-  minds.     Hence  the  law  in  England,  and  in 


VARIETY  OF  EMrLOTMENTS.  33 

some  of  the  United  States,  prohibits  the  employment  of 
children  below  a  certain  age — at  least  in  certain  callings 
— and  does  not  allow  them  to  work  more  than  a  certain 
number  of  hours  any  week  during  another  time  of  their 
life.  It  has  been  proved,  however,  that  when  children 
of  a  certain  age  do  light  work  for  a  time,  and  learn  for 
a  time,  their  education  does  not  suiFer. 

A  variety  of  circumstances,  then,  lead  to  a  division 
of  employments.  Experience  shows  that  such  a  division 
makes  work  easier. 

The  most  familiar  and  general  of  such  divisions  is 
that  which  sets  a  father  to  work,  and  gives  the  mother 
the  management  of  the  home.  The  wise  expenditure 
of  wages  is  as  important  and  difficult  as  the  skilful  eai-u- 
ing  of  wages.  No  man  is  more  to  be  pitied  than  a 
workman  who,  having  a  yoimg  family,  loses  his  wife,  ex- 
cept perhaps  one  who  has  a  wife  who  neglects  her  du- 
ties to  her  home  and  her  children. 

The  largest  example  of  the  division  of  employment 
is  to  be  found  in  the  government  of  a  countrv.  If  no 
arrangement  were  made  for  the  public  and  private  de- 
fence, for  doing  right  between  persons  in  courts  of 
law,  but  everybody  had  to  undertake  the  protection  of 
his  own  home  and  family  from  violence,  and  to  be  the 
judge  of  his  own  rights  and  wrongs,  the  waste  of  such 
a  system  would  be  vast,  the  /confusion  would  be  con- 
stant, and  society  coiald  not  hold  together.  The  soldier, 
the  policeman,  the  judge,  the  ruler,  are  all  appointed  to 
the  offices  they  fill,  because  it  is  the  cheapest  course  to 
have  such  persons  to  do  a  great  public  service. 

If  you  were  to  go  into  a  great  manufactory,  you 
would  find  in  one  place  a  number  of  persons  engaged 
2* 


34  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

in  keeping  accounts,  and  considering  what  work  is  to  be 
luidertaken.  Then,  when  you  go  into  the  workshop, 
you  would  find  a  number  of  persons  engaged  in  various 
kinds  of  labor.  You  might  find  some  men  occupied  in 
work  which  requires  a  great  amount  of  skill,  others  in 
work  which  needs  little  more  than  an  effort  of  strength. 
You  may  find  women  employed  in  occupations  which  do 
not  need  much  heavy  labor,  but  which  do  require  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  taste  or  quickness.  And,  lastly,  you 
may  find  a  mmiber  of  children  occupied  in  tliat  which 
does  not  require  much  strength  or  much  skill.  There 
may  be,  in  short,  many  kinds  of  labor  engaged  under  the 
same  roof 

Now  it  is  plain  that  there  may  be,  and  is,  a  great 
variety  in  the  value  of  these  kinds  of  labor.  It  would 
seem  that  the  work  which  needs  much  skill  and  strength 
ought  to  be  more  costly,  i.  e.,  be  better  paid,  than  that 
which  needs  only  strength,  or  only  skill,  and  much  more 
than  that  which  needs  neither  skill  nor  strength  in  any 
great  degree. 

Now  imagine  that  one  man  did  all  the  work.  Sup- 
pose that  he  is  engaged  in  something  that  is  really 
wanted,  and  Avhich  peoj^le  will  freely  pay  for  in  order  to 
possess  it.  It  is  clear  that  in  such  a  case  he  must  be 
paid  for  the  easiest  and  simplest  work  at  the  same  rate 
that  he  is  paid  for  the  hardest  and  that  which  needs  most 
skill,  and  therefore  that  what  he  makes  and  sells  will  be 
very  expensive. 

The  division  of  employment  takes  away  part  of  the 
cost  of  labor.  Easy  work  is  paid  at  cheap  or  low  rates ; 
liard  work,  and  work  which  needs  much  skill,  at  high 
rates.     In  a  great  factory,  such  as  I  have  spoken  of,  one 


VAEIETY   OF  ElIPLOTMENTS.  35 

■workman  may  earn  as  many  dollars  a  week  as  another 
earns  dimes.  Nay,  the  most  important  workman  of  all, 
the  manager,  has,  if  he  is  paid  properly,  to  receive  much 
more  than  any  of  those  who  are  put  under  him,  and  for 
a  very  plain  reason. 


LESSON  YII. 

VARIOUS   RATES   OF  WAGES. 

JrST  as  one  field  may  grow  more  corn  than  another 
field,  without  putting  the  farmer  to  any  greater  cost  in 
cultivating  it, — just  as  a  shop  in  one  street  may  be  more 
suitable  for  business  than  an  equally  good  shop  in  an- 
other street, — just  as  one  mine  may  yield  more  coal  or 
iron  than  another  mine,  while  the  cost  of  working  both 
is  the  same,  and  so  on  with  a  variety  of  other  such  nat- 
urally useful  objects — so  one  man  may,  with  no  greater 
cost  of  preparation  than  his  neighbor,  earn  a  great  deal 
more  than  that  neighbor.  There  is  a  superior  fertility 
of  certain  fields,  a  greater  profit  to  be  got  in  certain 
places,  richer  veins  in  certain  mines,  and  similarly  there 
is  a  greater  natural  power  in  certain  minds.  Two  law- 
yers may  have  the  same  education  and  be  equally  dili- 
gent, but  one  may  earn  hundreds  where  another  only 
earns  tens.  Two  physicians  may  have  had  the  same  ad- 
vantages of  study,  and  have  equally  striven  to  profit  by 
their  opportunities,  and  one  may  make  a  fortime  while 
the  other  can  barely  earn  a  living. 

Now  in  the  case  of  the  field,  the  shop,  and  the  mine, 
it  is  easy  to  measure  the  natm-al  advantage  which  the 
more  favored  possess  over  the  less,  for  reasons  which  I 


VAEIOUS  RATES  OF  WAGES.  37 

o-ave  before,  when  I  told  you  how  rent  arises.  It  is  not 
so  easy,  however,  to  measm-e  the  advantage  which  supe- 
rior abilities  give  some  jiei'sons  over  others  who  work  in 
the  same  calling;  but  they  are  none  the  less  real  and 

solid. 

These  advantages  of  superior  natural  powers  are  to 
be  noticed  more  frequently  in  mental  labor  than  in  man- 
ual. When  an  ordinary  manual  laborer  has  superior 
gifts,  he  seldom  remains  long  in  his  first  calling.  He 
contrives  to  raise  himself  to  what  may  be  called  the  pro- 
fessional class,  to  leave  off  workmg  with  his  hands,  be- 
cause he  is  able  to  work  with  his  head.  The  history  of 
invention  contains  many  instances  of  persons  who  have 
begim  their  career  in  a  very  humble  station,  and  Avho 
have  raised  themselves  to  great  eminence  by  their  ge- 
nius and  skill. 

I  have  mentioned  this  difference  of  capacity  between 
man  and  man,  because  it  is  the  only  fact  which  prevents 
the  rule  which  I  am  going  to  state  from  being  universal 
— that  the  wages  of  every  kind  of  labor  or  service  which 
is  offered  and  accepted  are  measured  by  the  cost  of  pro- 
ducing and  maintaining  the  laborer.  As  the  mass  of 
men  have  no  remarkable  gifts,  the  rule  holds  in  their 
case  without  exception. 

I  use  the  words  "  labor  or  service  which  is  offered 
and  accepted,"  because  when  a  thing  is  not  wanted  it 
has  no  price  or  value.  In  degree,  as  I  have  said  before, 
the  same  fact  prevails  when  more  is  offered  than  is 
wanted.  I  put  the  case  where  the  quantity  offered  ex- 
actly satisfies  the  quantity  needed,  because  we  are  able 
to  discover  from  such  a  case  what  follows  when  the 
offer  is  more  than  the  want,  or  the  want  is  more  than 
the  offer. 


38  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

From  time  to  time  every  kind  of  labor  rises  and 
falls  in  value  because  more  or  less  of  it  is  needed. 
When  in  1862,  and  for  two  or  three  years  afterwards, 
there  was  a  very  scanty  quantity  of  cotton  to  be  sold, 
and  therefore  the  price  rose  greatly,  the  services  of 
cotton-spinners  in  England  were  less  needed,  and  in 
consequence  great  distress  prevailed  in  those  English 
counties  where  the  chief  industry  is  that  of  cotton- 
BpinniBg.  When,  a  few  years  ago,  it  was  no  longer 
found  to  be  worth  while  to  build  iron  ships  on  the 
Thames,  the  same  kind  of  distress  occurred  among  the 
ship-builders. 

Taking:  these  cases  into  accomit  then,  we  shall  find 
that  the  rule  given  above  holds  good.  A  workman  is 
not  paid  wages  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the 
service  he  does,  or  to  the  general  skill  with  which  he 
does  it,  but  according  to  the  cost  of  making  him  fit  for 
the  w^ork  which  he  has  to  do. 

There  is  no  workman  who  can  do  so  many  things 
well  as  a  good  farm-laborer.  He  can  plough.  Now 
this  is  a  work  which  requu-es  a  nice  eye  and  a  steady 
hand,  for  the  ploughman  has  to  drive  a  straight  furrow 
for  a  long  distance,  and  make  that  furrow  of  a  uniform 
depth.  He  can  reap — a  task  which  requires  no  little 
skill;  mow;  build  up  a  rick,  thatch  it;  tend  horses, 
sheep,  and  cattle ;  milk  cows ;  trim  hedges ;  clean  and 
bank  ditches,  and  a  number  of  other  things,  any  one  of 
which  needs  great  skill :  but  he  is  generally  paid  very 
low  wages. 

The  fact  is,  it  costs  very  little  to  fit  him  for  his  work. 
At  an  early  age  he  is  made  to  earn  the  whole  or  part  of 
his  living,  by  being  set  to  work  in  the  field.  He  picks 
up  his  skill  in  other  kinds  of  farm- work  gradually. 


VARIOUS  RATES  OF  WAGES.  .  39 

There  are  other  callings  in  which  it  is  the  custom  to 
limit  the  right  of  working  to  those  who  have  been  ap- 
prentices, and  fm-ther  to  limit  the  nimiber  of  apprentices 
which  a  master  may  take.  These  rules  make  laborers 
scarce.  The  first  rule  makes  the  cost  of  training  high, 
by  delaying  the  power  of  earning  full  wages ;  the  second 
rule  makes  the  number  of  laborers  few.  In  callings 
therefore  where  these  rules  prevail,  the  wages  of  the 
workman — whose  skill,  maybe,  is  far  less  than  that  of  the 
fai-m-laborer — are  far  higher  than  those  of  the  farm-hand. 
But  I  must  speak  more  at  length  on  this  subject  here- 
after. 

A  workman,  in  short,  is  just  like  a  machuie.  It  costs 
a  great  deal  to  render  him  competent  to  do  work,  and 
the  outlay  varies  from  hundreds  to  thousands  of  dol- 
lars. The  workman  has  to  be  provided  with  food  in  or- 
der that  he  may  work  at  all,  just  as  a  machine  has  to  get 
its  power  of  motion  from  fuel  or  some  other  source  of 
power;  and  similarly,  the  human  machine  lasts  in  its  full 
strength  only  for  a  time,  and  entirely  wears  out  at 
last. 

If  there  were  any  plan  devised  by  which  all  the 
workmen  in  a  particular  calling  were  brought  up  and 
taught  at  the  public  exj^ense,  the  wages  of  such  work- 
men would  reach  the  lowest  range.  In  so  far  as  some 
of  such  workmen  were  thus  bred  up,  so  far  the  wages 
of  all  would  be  lowered.  There  is  no  doubt,  since  many 
children  of  the  poorest  classes  are  brought  up  at  the 
public  expense  in  workhouses  and  elsewhere,  that  the 
general  rate  of  wages  is  thereby  lessened.  There  are 
some  gifts  which  are  not  gains;  you  may  not  be  able  to 
refuse  their  acceptance,  though  you  may  be  none  the 
better  for  them. 


LESSON  VIII. 

UNPAID    WORK. 

The  hardest  labor  which  men  Tindergo  in  field  facto- 
ry, or  mine,  is  not  so  hard  as  that  which  some  undergo 
merely  to  amuse  themselves.  There  are  men  who  hunt, 
swim,  race,  row,  rim,  walk,  in  a  manner  which,  if  they 
were  forced  to  do  these  things  by  another's  will,  or  for 
their  living,  would  be  a  grievous  hardship — a  mere  cruel- 
ty. So  there  are  people  who  study.  A  man  will  gaze 
night  after  night  at  the  stars  with  a  patience  and  earnest- 
ness which  few  give  to  their  common  business — with  far 
more  diligence  than  any  switch-tender  watches  trains. 
Another  will  pore  over  coins,  and  relics,  and  ruins,  for 
months  and  years  together ;  and  not  only  will  such  peo- 
ple work  very  hard,  but  they  will  get  nothing  for  their 
trouble. 

This  kind  of  work  is  generally  very  pleasant  to  the 
man  that  undertakes  it,  and  is  sometimes  very  useful  to 
society.  Unless  it  goes  into  excess,  exercise  is  of  great 
service  to  the  man  who  takes  it.  It  makes  him  healthy, 
clear-headed,  and  strong;  it  gives,  or  ought  to  give,  a 
lesson  of  temperance,  for  no  person  can  excel  in  those 
exercises  unless  his  habits  are  regular  and  sober.  The 
change  also  from  one  kind  of  exertion  to  another  is  ex- 
ceedingly good  for  boys  and  men.     A  boy  who  mopes 


UNPAID  WORK.  41 

in  the  playground  seklom  makes  much  figure  in  his 
class. 

These  exercises  are  a  good  thing  for  society  at  large. 
It  is  everybody's  interest  that  the  men  and  women  of 
the  nation  to  which  he  belongs  should  be  healthy  and 
vigorous.  A  plant  is  healthy  by  reason  of  its  leaves  as 
well  as  its  root ;  a  man  is  healthy  when  his  mind  and  his 
body  grow  together.  Now  a  race  of  stunted,  sickly 
people  may  be  said  to  be  like  a  groAvth  of  stunted  and 
sickly  plants.  Happily,  however,  it  is  almost  always 
possible  to  put  health  into  young  people.  It  has  some- 
times happened,  though,  that  a  race  has  been  ruined. 

Again,  when  an  astronomer  watches  the  skies  night 
after  night — a  geologist  studies  the  manner  in  which  the 
earth  is  constructed — a  naturalist  busies  himself  with 
the  different  habits  and  powers  of  animals — a  botanist 
inquires  into  the  structure  of  plants — these  people  are 
engaged  in  occupations  which  give  them  the  keenest 
pleasure.  The  study  of  nature  is  one  of  the  best  and 
most  gratifying  of  pursuits.  .  You  can  follow  it  out  in  a 
great  town  as  eagerly,  though  not  perhaps  as  fully,  as  in 
a  country  village.  It  will  give  a  relish  to  all  occupa- 
tions, and  add  new  powers  to  one's  eyes,  and  sometimes 
to  one's  other  senses. 

These  pursuits  give  a  great  many  advantages  to  him 
who  follows  them.  It  would  be  sufficient  if  they  affoi'd- 
ed  him  a  rational  amusement,  and  lifted  him  above 
merely  sensual  pleasures ;  but  they  very  often  do  much 
more.  Observing  eyes  have  frequently  found  out  some- 
thing which  have  set  many  heads  and  hands  to  work. 
The  prizes  of  human  life  are  rare,  and  many  may  miss 
them  who  deserve  them  as  much  as  those  who  find  them , 
but  nobody  ever  foimd  them  who  kept  his  eyes  shut. 


42  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

But  I  am  more  concerned  at  present  with  the  effect 
of  these  kmds  of  study  on  society  at  large.  They  have 
constantly  been  the  reason  why  mankind  has  made  a 
great  and  lasting  advance  from  weakness  to  power ;  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  they  will  constantly  produce  the 
same  results.     It  is  easy  to  prove  what  I  have  said. 

Some  student  finds  out  that  a  little  piece  of  stone 
gives  a  power  to  a  little  piece  of  steel  of  always  point- 
ing in  one  direction.  His  discovery  enables  sailors  to 
improve  the  art  of  navigation,  and  to  find  out  a  new 
world. 

Still,  this  discovery  only  tells  the  sailor  which  way 
he  is  going.  Another  person  finds  out  that  he  can  make, 
by  reason  of  the  qualities  of  certain  metals,  an  instru- 
ment which  will  measure  time  with  almost  complete  ac- 
curacy, and  thus  enable  the  sailor  to  find  out  where 
he  is. 

The  ship  is,  however,  a  very  rough  affair.  Another 
person  studies  the  properties  of  water,  air,  and  wood, 
and  defines,  as  accurately  as  a  reckoning  in  figures  will 
define  any  thing,  what  are  the  rules  by  which  a  ship 
should  be  built. 

Now  let  us  take  another  subject.  A  student  busies 
himself  with  the  ground  on  which  he  walks,  the  quarries 
of  stone  which  are  dug  out  in  it,  and  the  shells  and 
other  relics  which  he  finds  in  it.  He  is  struck  with  the 
fact  that  the  shells  are  exactly  the  same  as  those  which 
are  found  near  such  coal-mines  as  are  or  have  been 
worked.  He  argues,  and  he  is  right  too,  that  though  no 
coal  is  to  be  seen  in  the  place  which  he  has  examined, 
the  coal  will  be  found  on  digging.  He  does  the  same 
with  mines  of  metals. 

A  chemist  is  engaged  in  trying,  for  the  pure  love  of 


UNPAID  WORK.  43 

knowledge,  to  find  out  what  ai'e  the  properties  possessed 
by  gas-tar.  Kothmg,  it  wouUl  seem,  but  a  love  of  sci- 
ence would  lead  him  to  trouble  himself  with  it.-  But  he 
knows  that  Nature  is  full  of  pleasant  surprises,  and  that 
the  more  you  learn  about  it,  the  more  you  enjoy  it.  By- 
and-by  he  finds  out  that  this  black,  ill-smelling  stuff  con- 
tains the  material  for  the  most  brilliant  colors  which  can 
be  given  to  cotton,  wool,  and  silk. 

Hardest  of  all,  a  man  busies  liimself  with  consider 
ing  how  the  life  of  man  can  be  spent  most  profitably  to 
his  neighbor  and  himself — how  tlie  world  can  go  on  with 
the  least  possible  waste  and  disappointment.  If  he  hits 
on  the  truth,  he  has  done  the  rarest  work  of  all,  chiefly 
because  the  fruit  of  his  discovery  is  to  teach  the  way  in 
which  each  man  can  make  the  best  use  of  his  powers. 
His  work  is  of  a  very  anxious  kind,  partly  because  it  is 
so  serious  a  matter  if  he  makes  a  mistake,  and  persuades 
people  that  his  mistake  is  a  truth,  partly  because  it  is  so 
difficult  to  discover  the  truth  after  which  he  is  seeking. 

Perhaps  not  one  of  these  persons  is  ever  paid  for  his 

trouble.     Many  of  them  do  not  care  to  be  paid,  and  if 

.their  work  were  ever  so  much  slighted,  would  jiersevere 

as  steadily  as  though  it  were  reckoned  at  its  true  value. 

I  have  spoken  of  these  cases  because  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  all  useful  work  is  paid  for.  Had  it  not 
been  for  such  persons  as  these,  who  have  studied  what 
is  to  be  seen  and  known  for  truth's  sake,  there  would 
have  been  very  little  real  progress  made  by  mankind. 
Social  science  takes  note  of  those  services  esi)ecially 
which  are  valued  and  exchanged ;  but  it  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  forget  that  some  of  the  best  services 
are  beyond  value,  and  cannot  be  priced,  because  no  knovvu 
price  equals  their  worth. 


LESSON  IX. 

MOTIVES     FOR     LABOR. 

It  does  not  follow  because  a  man  works  for  that 
which  will  give  him  wages  or  profit,  that  he  does  not 
feel  a  pleasv;re  in  his  work.  Men  may  have  a  keen  eye 
for  the  advantages  which  their  calling  affords  them,  and 
yet  have  as  keen  a  love  for  the  calling  itself  A  great 
painter,  like  Tm-ner,  may  be  quite  devoted  to  his  art, 
and  yet  be  quite  alive  to  the  gain  he  makes  by  it.  A 
great  musician  may  be  excessively  fond  of  the  wonder- 
ful subject  on  which  his  genius  is  exercised,  as  Beet- 
hoven was,  and  yet  drive  a  good  bargain  with  those  who 
prize  his  compositions.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think 
that  the  toil  by  which  a  man  earns  his  bread  must  needs 
be  unpleasant.  On  the  contrary,  he  is  a  very  silly  fellow 
who  does  not  make  it  agteeable^  if  it  be  possible  to  do 
so.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  every  man  who  works 
for  his  living  wishes  to  shorten  his  labor  as  much  as  he 
can.  So  also  does  he  who  works  for  his  pleasure.  Pro- 
vided it  be  only  well  done,  no  sensible  person  likes  to 
linger  over  his  work  longer  than  he  can  help. 

Now,  what  is  it  that  sets  most  men  and  women  to 
work  ?  It  is  necessity.  A  man  must  work  in  order  to 
live.  A  few  people  can  live  without  working  in  any  so- 
ciety, but  only  a  few.     Nay,  it  is  remarkable  that  of 


MOTIVES  rOR  LABOR.  45 

these  few  a  great  many  work  veiy  hard,  some  for  profit, 
some  for  glory,  some  for  what  they  beUeve  to  be  the 
good  of  their  fellow-men.  In  our  country  there  are 
many  rich  but  very  few  idle  persons.  Some  of  the  rich- 
est are  the  most  active,  and  if  you  remember  what  was 
said  in  the  last  lesson,  some  of  them  are  the  most 
useful. 

A  man,  however,  may  be  very  willing  to  work,  and 
yet  find  nothing  to  do,  because  he  has  not  found  anybody 
who  Avants  that  which  his  work  produces.  Makers  of 
carpets  and  fire-irons  would  find  no  employment  in  Bra- 
zil, for  in  a  hot  climate  nobody  uses  a  carpet  or  keeps  a 
fire  in  his  sitting-room. 

Somebody  wants  a  man's  work  before  he  betakes 
himself  to  such  an  industry  as  he  carries  on.  Somebody 
is  ready  to  pay  for  it — that  is,  to  give  money  for  it,  or 
to  exchange  something  else  for  it — that  is,  to  make 
something  which  he  will  give  histead  of  it.  For  reasons 
which  I  shall  show  in  another  lesson,  to  buy  and  to  bar- 
ter are  really  the  same  things. 

Two  or  more  people  work,  then,  because  somebody 
.wants  what  they  work  at.  There  are,  of  course,  many 
kinds  of  wants,  which  are  more  or  less  pressing.  Every- 
body wants  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  But  there  are 
many  other  wants  when  these  are  satisfied,  which  many 
or  few  people  desire.  If  they  do  desire  them,  and  they 
can  be  supplied,  they  get  them  satisfied. 

You  will  see,  then,  that  the  force  which  sets  people 
to  work  is  twofold :  their  own  needs  and  the  needs  of 
others.  If  men  wanted  nothing,  they  would  not  work; 
and  if  other  men  would  give  nothing  which  they  want, 
it  would  be  no  good  for  them  to  work. 

NoAV  if  any  man  who  works  could  easily  and  instant- 


46  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

ly  find  a  customer  or  customers  who  would  keep  him  in 
constant  employment,  and  would  give  him  in  exchange 
for  his  work  what  he  wants  himself,  the  circle  would  be 
complete.  Such  a  state  of  things  occurs  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  in  country  villages.  A  tailor  or  shoemaker 
constantly  gets  work  from  the  villagers  who  live  in  the 
same  place  with  him,  finding  his  customers  without  any 
difiiculty,  and  living  entirely  on  their  wants.  In  India  the 
system  is  carried  out  much  more  exactly.  In  the  vil- 
lages of  that  country  there  are  always  a  certain  number 
of  artificers  who  live  out  of  the  common  funds  of  the 
village,  in  return  for  the  labors  they  give. 

Remembering,  then,  that  the  sole  force  which  moves 
a  man,  whose  needs  compel  him  to  work,  is  the  willing- 
ness of  others  to  buy  the  proceeds  of  his  work  from 
him,  you  will  see  that  our  social  life,  especially  with 
those  who  dwell  in  large  towns,  is  very  difierent  from 
that  which  belongs  to  our  country  villages,  and  still  fur- 
ther removed  from  that  which  is  found  in  India.  The 
city  workman  seldom  deals  directly  with  the  man  who 
uses  that  which  he  makes ;  he  is  generally  employed  by 
a  person  who  is  called  master. 

This  master  or  employer  is  really  a  middleman  or 
o-o-between.  His  business  is  to  find  out  customers  for 
the  workman's  labor,  and  so  to  save  him  the  trouble  of 
seeking  the  customers  himself  Now  such  an  agent  is  a 
great  saving  to  the  workman.  Though  he  does  not  say 
so  in  so  many  words,  he  does  say  in  elFect,  "  I  will  find 
you  jjersons  who  will  buy  yoin*  labor,  if  there  are  any 
persons  who  will  buy  it." 

Next,  his  experience  in  finding  customers  not  only 
stands  the  workman  in  good  stead,  but  the  same  experi- 
ence enables  him  to  guess  with  fair  certainty  what  the 


MOTH'ES   FOR   LABOR.  47 

number  of  such  customera  will  be,  and  to  take  the  risk 
of  finding  them  out.  Hence  he  is  able  to  fix  in  a  rough 
way  how  much  of  the  labor  for  which  he  finds  customers 
is  wanted,  and  in  a  much  closer  way,  is  able  to  find  reg- 
ular work  for  as  many  laborers  as  are  needed  for  this 
Avork. 

There  is  nothing  which  a  workman  desires  more  than 
steady  work  at  a  fair  price.  This  is  what  the  middle- 
man or  employer  does  for  him,  or  at  least  ofiers  to  do 
for  him.  He  buys  his  labor  and  sells  it  agahi.  The 
laborer  sells  him  his  labor  as  really  as  the  merchant  sells 
the  employer  the  leather,  wood,  cotton,  or  cloth  on 
which  the  workman  tries  his  skill.  Nay,  the  workman 
actually  lends  his  labor,  unless  he  is  paid  from  hour  to 
hour,  or  the  employer  advances  his  wages,  as  certauily 
as  the  man  lends  money  Avho  makes  an  advance  to  the 
employer,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  buy  the  materials 
which  I  named  just  now. 

Why,  then,  is  this  employer  or  master  paid,  and  what 
is  he  paid  ?  He  is  paid  because  he  does  a  service  to  the 
laborer,  and  for  the  matter  of  that,  to  the  man  who  buys 
the  laborer's  work  in  the  end.  He  is  paid  because  he 
works;  and  he  is  paid  well  whenever  his  skill  is  no 
common  power.  The  employer  will  and  can  no  more 
work  for  nothing  than  any  other  laborer  can  or  will. 
How  much  he  will  be  paid  depends  on  several  things. 
It  depends  partly  on  the  bargain  which  he  can  make 
with  the  laborer,  partly  on  the  bargain  which  he  can 
make  with  the  customer,  partly  on  the  shrewdness  and 
skill  with  which  he  can  guess  at  what  the  customers 
want. 

He  does  not,  however,  except  in  a  very  narrow 
flense,  set  labor  in  motion.     He  does  not  find  Avages,  ex- 


48  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

cept  for  a  short  time.  He  is  a  middleman,  or  go-be- 
tween, or  dealer,  who  does  a  very  useful  service  to  cer- 
tain persons,  a  service  which  very  often  is  quite  neces- 
saiy.  But  many  laborers  do  Avithout  him,  many  more 
could  do  without  him ;  some  are  doing  without  him  on 
a  very  great  scale.  But  social  life  can  never  wholly  get 
rid  of  him,  for  he  is  sometim.es  a  real  necessity  for  la- 
borer and  customer. 


LESSON  X. 

PAKTJfERSHIPS  OF  LABOR. 

The  reasons  which  give  a  price  to  the  master's  or 
employer's  labor,  enable  the  shopkeeper  to  get  a  profit 
on  what  he  does.  The  shopkeeper  is  the  last  link  be- 
tween the  laborer  or  producer,  and  the  customer  or 
consumer.  If  he  were  got  rid  of,  or  not  in  existence, 
the  man  who  makes  any  useful  article  would  have  to  hunt 
out  the  man  who  wants  the  article.  This  would  be  a 
waste  of  time,  and  therefore  it  is  better  to  employ  a 
go-between. 

The  reason  why  there  are  such  persons  as  merchants, 
agents,  bankers,  contractors,  and  so  forth,  is  just  the 
same.  These  are  middlemen,  who  cheapen,  or,  what  is 
the  same  thing,  render  more  convenient  the  course  of 
trade.  Of  course,  if  there  are  more  of  them  than  are 
needed,  they  are  a  liindrance  and  a  loss.  When  there 
are  too  many  of  them  they  cause  dearness,  for  they  gen- 
erally unite  together  to  fix  the  price  of  what  they  sell, 
and  then  look  out  for  customers.  They  haA^e  a  perfect 
right  to  do  this,  for  everybody  has  a  right  to  put  his 
own  price  on  his  own  goods  and  his  own  labor,  and  if 
need  be,  to  xmite  with  other  persons  for  a  common  end ; 
but  then,  other  people  have  a  right  to  do  without  them 
if  they  choose  to  do  so. 
3 


50  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

Xo  one,  it  is  clear,  has  a  right  to  demand  of  any 
other  person  that  he  should  find  him  employment.  A 
man  who  wants  something  may  make  it  himself  if  he 
pleases,  and  if  he  can.  A  man  who  needs  a  service  may 
do  it  for  himself,  if  he  is  able,  and  nobody  is  wronged. 
So  if  a  body  of  workmen  or  a  body  of  customers  can 
get  rid  of  these  middlemen,  they  are  perfectly  justified 
in  doing  so. 

This  is  sometimes  done  under  what  is  called  co-oper- 
ation. The  word  is  rather  an  unlucky  one,  because 
there  can  be  no  human  society  at  all  without  co-opera- 
tion; but  the  word  is  commonly  used  to  express  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  partnership,  in  which  the  service  of  the 
middleman  is  got  rid  of.  Of  this  partnership  there  are 
two  kinds. 

One,  the  easiest  and  the  simplest,  is  that  which  seeks 
to  get  rid  of  the  shopkeeper,  and  therefore  to  sell  the 
articles  either  at  the  ordinary  price,  and  divide  the  profits 
among  the  customers  of  the  shop  or  store,  or  at  the 
loAvest  cost  possible,  after  the  exj)enses  of  the .  shop  are 
paid.  Such  a  scheme  has  been  adopted  in  some  settle- 
ments in  the  United  States  and  in  many  towns  through 
the  North  of  England.  The  princii^le  of  the  plan  is 
that  the  shop  gives  no  credit,  and  therefore  runs  no 
risk. 

The  other  kind  of  partnership  is  where  the  work- 
men find  building,  machines,  tools,  and  materials  them- 
selves, and  so  get  rid  of  the  master  or  employer.  This 
is  a  much  more  serious  business.  If  it  succeeds,  the 
workmen,  in  addition  to  their  own  wages,  get  the  em- 
ployer's wages  also. 

In  order  that  such  a  plan  should  succeed,  three  things 
are  necessary :   good  management,  promj  t  obedience 


PARTNERSHIPS   OF  LABOR.  51 

to  the  necessary  discipline  of  the  workshop,  and  thrift. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  secure  the  thrift,  for  when  all  the 
workmen,  or  a  vast  number  of  the  workmen,  are  also 
owners,  there  is  every  wish  to  avoid  waste.  In  this 
particular,  an  association  or  partnership  of  workmen  has 
a  great  advantage  over  an  employer.  I  am  told  that 
where  this  plan  has  been  adopted  the  saving  of  waste 
is  often  very  great.  I  am  afraid  it  is  true,  and  will  be 
true  for  a  long  time  to  come,  that  people  take  more 
care  of  their  own  than  they  do  of  their  neighbor's 
property. 

It  is  not  always  easy,  however,  to  secure  prompt 
obedience.  Men  who  possess  their  own  property  don't 
like  to  be  dictated  to  sometimes  as  to  how  they  should 
use  it,  and  English-American  j^eople,  we  are  told,  least 
of  all.  They  make  a  great  mistake  when  they  show 
this  self-will,  even  though  no  person's  interest  but  their 
own  is  concerned.  For,  unluckily,  the  notion  that  a 
man  will  always  save  and  spare  what  belongs  to  him,  is  a 
great  error.  Passion,  and  the  habit  of  thinking  only  of 
the  present  day,  instead  of  the  future,  make  many  men 
waste  their  substance,  their  powers,  and  their  char- 
acter. 

But  when  another  man's  interest  is  bound  up  in  one's 
own,  the  folly  of  negligence  to  duty,  or  order,  or  need- 
ful obedience,  becomes  a  crime.  You  may  see  this  best 
in  an  army.  The  safety  of  all  lies  in  the  obedience  of 
all.  If  there  be  such  a  thing  as  natural  rights,  to  go  to 
sleep  when  you  are  tired  is  one  of  those  rights ;  but  if 
a  sentinel  does  so,  he  is  shot.  Another  natural  right  is 
that  of  avoiding  danger ;  but  a  man  who  runs  away  in  a 
battle  is  treated  with  the  same  justice  as  is  given  to  a 
sleeping  sentinel.     It  is  quite  fair  that  a  man  should 


52  •  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

choose  those  with  whom  he  cares  to  have  friendship ; 
but  in  war  the  choice  is  restricted,  under  the  same  pen- 
alties. 

Such,  or  something  Hke  it,  is  the  case  with  a  business 
in  which  many  persons  are  interested.  If  onejman  ne- 
glects his  work,  another  refrises  to  obey  orders,  a  third 
undertakes  that  which  does  not  belong  to  him,  every 
thing  is  thrown  out  of  gear.  You  can  see  the  same 
thing  in  a  school.  The  first  rule  of  a  school  is  order. 
Out  of  school  the  more  liberty  without  wrong-doing 
the  better:  in  school  hours  no  liberty  and  full  obedience 
is  the  way  to  work  well.  In  some  of  these  workmen 
j)artnerships  of  which  I  know,  obedience  is  as  strictly 
maintained  as  it  is  in  an  army ;  in  consequence,  the  whole 
of  the  workmen  prosper. 

The  hardest  of  all  the  needs  is  good  management ; 
but  the  better  and  wiser  the  workman  is,  the  easier  is  the 
management.  If  there  were  no  wilful,  foolish,  and 
vicious  people  in  the  world,  there  would  be  no  great 
trouble  in  ruling  men.  If  there  were  no  naughty  and 
idle  boys,  the  government  of  a  school  would  be  very 
easy.  Perhaps,  too,  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  find  people 
who  will  trust  the  ruler,  as  it  is  to  find  rulers  who  can  be 
trusted. 

Now  these  partnerships  of  workmen  have  been  en- 
tered upon  in  England  and  in  the  United  States.  They 
have  been  very  successful  where  the  jilan  has  been  cai'- 
ried  out  as  I  have  described  it ;  but  they  have  been  still 
more  successful  in  Northern  Germany. 


LESSOX  XL 

THE   EIGHT  OF  A  SELLER  TO   FIX  A   PRICE. 

Ls"  my  last  lesson  I  said  that  everybody  has  a  right 
to  fix  the  price  at  which  he  will  sell  that  which  he  pos- 
sesses. This  statement  is  a  general  rule,  to  which  there 
may  be  excej)tions. 

For  example,  if  a  to"\vn  was  besieged,  or  in  other  way 
reduced  to  great  straits,  and  a  few  men  possessed  all 
the  food  in  the  town,  it  is  clear  that,  reasonable  compen- 
sation being  made,  such  persons  may  be  constrained  to 
bring  the  food  they  have  into  a  common  stock.  And 
the  ground  of  such  an  interference  with  trade  is,  that 
the  siege  being  endured  for  the  common  safety  of  all, 
or  the  calamity,  whatever  it  may  be,  affecting  all,  the  full 
rights  of  jjroperty  must  be  suspended  for  a  time. 

In  the  same  way,  if  it  were  necessary  suddenly  to 
undertake  some  work  of  public  defence — as  building 
forts  against  an  enemy,  or  joining  together  to  put  down 
a  riot,  or  laboring  to  check  an  immdation — it  would 
never  do  to  submit  to  the  highest  terms  which  those  who 
might  do  the  work  could  extort,  but  all  might  be  justly 
called  on  to  aid  in  what  would  be  a  common  duty  and  a 
common  Interest. 

Again,  it  must  be  supposed  that  the  person  who  fixes 
his  price  for  his  work  or  labor  should  be  free  to  choose. 


54  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

The  law  properly  interferes  to  protect  the  weak  agahist 
the  strong.  Hence  it  is  held  that  the  labor  of  children 
should  be  regulated  by  law  ;  that  certahi  callings  should 
not  be  followed  by  womeu;  and  sometimes  that  the 
hours  of  labor  in  the  case  of  young  j^ersons  should  be 
put  under  some  limit. 

But,  with  such  exceptions  as  these,  the  general  prin- 
ciple is  that  everybody  has  a  right  to  fix  what  price  he 
pleases  for  that  which  he  has  to  sell,  whether  it  be  labor 
or  goods.  In  the  case  of  goods,  very  few  people  doubt 
that  this  right  should  be  fully  given ;  in  the  case  of  labor, 
people  are  not  so  much  of  one  miud,  though  they  are 
much  more  agreed  than  they  once  were. 

If  a  man  has  the  right  of  fixing  the  price  of  his  own 
labor,  he  has  a  right  to  join  with  others  in  order  to  fix 
the  price  of  all  the  labor  which  they  may  all  be  willing 
to  sell.  If  ten,  twenty,  or  two  himdred  persons  can 
join  in  a  trade  partnership  (and  in  some  such  j^artner- 
ships  the  number  is  reckoned  by  thousands — as,  for  ex- 
ample, in  a  railway),  any  number  of  j)ersons  can  as  rightly 
engage  in  a  labor  partnership,  and  thereupon  agree  to- 
gether as  to  the  terms  on  which  they  will  sell  their  labor. 

And  on  the  other  hand,  persons  who  buy  labor,  or 
the  produce  of  labor,  have  an  equal  right  to  decide  with 
whom  they  will  deal.  If  the  workman  has  a  choice  as 
to  the  rate  at  which  he  will  work,  the  customer  has  a 
choice  as  to  whether  he  will  accept  the  workman's  terms. 
In  the  long  run,  the  interests  of  the  two  parties  to  a 
bargain  are  so  clearly  understood  that  these  things  right 
themselves. 

When  the  workmen  join  together  to  fix  the  price  at 
which  they  will  work,  the  partnership  is  called  a  trades- 
union.     I  have  called  it  a  partnershij),  for  it  is  just  as 


EIGHT   OF   A   SELLER   TO   FIX  A  PRICE.        55 

much  such  an  agreement  as  is  the  union  of  n  number  of 
persons  to  start  a  bank  or  make  a  railway,  or  work  a 
mine.  To  refuse  this  right  of  partnership  to  workmen, 
and  to  give  it  to  those  who  sell  goods,  is  to  do  an  ui- 
justice. 

There  is  a  very  plain  reason  why  workmen  unite  to- 
gether in  such  a  partnership.  The  employer  of  labor, 
as  I  said  in  my  last  lesson,  finds  out  the  market  price  for 
that  which  he  buys  from  the  men  whom  he  employs. 
Now  he  wants,  of  course,  to  get  the  best  price  he  can, 
or  as  I  said  before,  to  get  the  greatest  amount  of  wages 
for  the  least  possible  work.  The  employer  of  labor  is 
the  manager  of  a  business.  Management  means  work ; 
and  work  is,  as  I  have  shown  you,  to  be  paid  for.  The 
manager  of  a  business,  then,  is  just  as  much  a  ■workman 
as  the  people  from  whom  he  buys  labor  are. 

The  price  which  he  gets  for  that  which  he  sells  cov- 
ers the  wages  which  he  has  paid  the  w^orkman,  the  cost 
of  his  own  materials,  which  are  only  labor  stored  up  in 
useful  objects  and  his  own  wages.  If  the  price  did  not 
cover  these  items,  it  is  clear  that  he  would  be  working 
at  a  loss,  and  would  not  therefore  continue  his  work.  In 
one  shape  or  the  other,  then,  he  gets  wages  for  the  work 
he  does. 

Now  it  is  possible  to  conceive  that  the  workmen 
whose  labor  he  buys  may  say  to  themselves,  and  then  to 
each  other :  "  This  employer  of  ours  gets  too  much 
wages  for  his  work,  and  we  get  too  little.  We  must  try 
to  put  this  right,  and  see  whether  we  cannot  get  a  larger 
share.     How  shall  we  set  about  this  ?  " 

There  are  three  ways  of  arriving  at  such  a  result. 
One  is,  that  the  laborers  should  cease  to  work  until  they 
are  paid  more  of  the  price  at  which  the  article  which 


56  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

they  make  sells.  Then  they  are  said  to  strike — i.  e.,  to 
leave  oflf  working  till  their  claims  are  met.  Unluckily 
for  the  workmen,  they  are  not  generally  so  well  in- 
formed as  the  master  or  emj^loyer  is  as  to  the  price  which 
their  labor  will  fetch,  and  as  to  the  needs  of  those  who 
buy  from  their  employer.  Hence  it  has  very  often  hap- 
pened that  when  they  strike  for  higher  wages  they  waste 
their  own  means,  and  do  not  gain  the  end  they  strive 
for.  They  are  as  much  justified  in  trying  to  better  the 
price  of  their  labor,  as  a  tradesman  or  merchant  is  who 
says  he  will  rather  not  sell  at  all,  than  not  get  what  he 
thinks  his  goods  are  worth. 

Another  way  of  meeting  the  difiiculty  is  to  submit 
the  whole  case  to  some  umpire.  People  seldom  judge 
of  their  own  rights  wisely,  and  are  frequently  the  better 
for  takings  counsel  about  them.  You  see  this  in  the 
games  which  you  play,  and  when  you  get  older  you  will 
see  the  same  fact  in  a  hundred  different  things.  There 
is  a  proverb,  that  "  a  man  who  is  his  own  lawyer  has  a 
fool  for  his  client."  But  a  man  who  makes  himself  the 
judge  of  his  own  rights  is  even  more  certain  to  commit 
errors.  Since  this  appeal  to  an  umpire  began  to  be  prac- 
ticed in  disputes  between  workmen  and  employers,  a 
great  many  difficulties  have  been  settled  in  a  friendly 
manner. 

There  is  yet  a  third  course ;  this  is  to  get  rid  of  the 
employer  altogether,  and  to  enter  into  a  complete  part- 
nership, in  which  the  manager  of  the  business  has  the 
ordering  of  the  labor,  and  in  which  the  wages  of  the 
employer,  after  paying  the  manager,  are  divided  among 
those  who  work  with  their  hands.  But  this,  as  you  will 
see,  is  what  I  spoke  about  in  my  last  lesson,  when  I  told 
you  of  labor  partnerships.     It  is  not  perhaps  possible  to 


EIGHT   OF  A  SELLER  TO  FIX  A  PRICE.        57 

make  this  change  m  all  oases,  but  where  the  plan  tas 
been  tried  it  has  often  succeeded,  and  as  time  goes  on  it 
is  likely  to  succeed  more  and  more.  Meanwhile  the 
trial  points  out  to  workingmen  what  is  the  real  position 
iu  wb-cli  the  employer  stands  to  them. 
3* 


LESSON  xn. 

THE  employer's  WAGES. 

Of  course^  if  workmen  had  the  means  wherewith  to 
build  the  factories  in  which  they  work,  ajid  to  buy  the 
machines,  if  any,  which  shorten  their  labor,  the  materi- 
als on  which  to  work,  and  could  also  bide  their  time  till 
they  can  sell  that  which  they  make  to  the  best  advan- 
tage, they  would  be  doing  what  the  employer  does  for 
them  when  he  uses  his  property  for  these  ends.  If,  more- 
over, having  these  advantages  in  their  possession,  they 
could  find  a  proper  and  fit  person  to  direct  their  work, 
were  content  to  follow  orders,  and  to  use  thrift,  their 
own  interests  would  lead  them  to  enter  into  the  j^art- 
nership,  and  so  save  themselves  the  cost  of  using  the 
employer's  property  and  services. 

They  are  seldom  able  to  do  so.  Workmen  are  rare- 
ly worth  more  than  their  week's  wages  in  advance,  and . 
sometimes  not  even  so  much,  but  have  to  run  in  debt 
until  they  are  paid  their  week's  wages  at  the  end  of  the 
week's  work.  Evei  if  they  have  saved  something,  they 
seldom  know  how  to  set  about  creating  such  a  partner- 
ship as  I  have  referred  to.  They  do  not  see  how  to 
begin. 

Besides,  in  a  great  many  kinds  of  industry  a  very 
great  outlay  has  to  be  made  before  any  returns  come  in 


THE  EMPLOYEE'S  WAGES.  59 

For  examjile,  a  railway  may  be  many  years  in  making, 
before  those  who  have  made  it  can  get  a  profit  or  reward 
for  their  expense.  In  other  words,  the  property  is  sunk 
in  the  undertaking. 

Of  course,  it  is  possible  for  workingmen  to  find  this 
outlay  if  they  could  join  together  to  do  so.  The  sum 
of  money  which  has  been  put  into  the  savings  banks  in 
this  country  is  far  in  excess  of  the  capital  of  the  biggest 
railway.  There  are  now  working,  and  at  a  very  good 
jirofit,  two  cotton  mills  at  Oldham,  in  England,  the  larg- 
est capital  of  which  has  been  subscribed  in  small  sums  by 
workingmen. 

In  by  far  the  largest  number  of  cases,  however,  some 
one,  two,  or  more  persons  called  employers,  capitalists, 
or  masters,  find  all  the  property -necessary  to  make  the 
workshop,  buy  the  machines  and  materials,  and  hold  the 
goods.  This  is  what  they  do.  They  do  not  really  pay 
the  workman,  for  at  the  end  of  the  week  they  are  in 
debt  to  him  for  work  he  has  trusted  them  with.  They 
merely  buy  his  labor,  as  much  as  they  buy  whatever  else 
they  want ;  and  they  sell  Avhat  they  have  bought  to  the 
customer. 

Xow  you  will  see  that  the  property  with  Avhich  the 
employer  gets  together  buildings,  machines,  materials, 
and  on  which  he  can  live  till  he  sees  proper  to  sell  what 
he  has  bought,  is  only  so  much  labor  previously  spent. 
We  saw  before  that,  with  one  exception,  nothing  has 
any  value  except  by  reason  of  the  work  which  has  been 
laid  out  on  it.  Property  is  value  put  into  material  ob- 
jects by  means  of  labor. 

Some  motive,  however,  must  be  put  before  the  per- 
son who  owns  this  property  in  order  to  induce  him,  in- 
Btead  of  using  it  for  his  own  enjoyment  or  amusement, 


60  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

to  save  it  first,  and  then  to  employ  it  in  assisting  others 
to  work.  It  is  true  that  the  owner  of  such  property 
would  not  use  it  in  this  manner,  unless  he  exjDected 
to  get  it  back  again  in  its  full  value ;  and  get  some- 
thing elfie  as  a  reward,  so  to  speak,  for  employmg  it 
to  the  g(  od  of  others,  instead  of  devoting  it  to  his  own 
pleasure. 

This  reward  or  inducement  is  called  interest.  A  man 
lends,  80  to  speak,  seed  to  the  groxmd,  and  he  expects 
not  onl}'  to  get  back  his  seed  at  harvest-time,  but  a  great 
deal  mere  than  he  lent.  In  the  same  way,  if  a  man  puts 
i:)roi)eily  into  the  groimd — for  example,  builds  a  house, 
drain'i  a  marsh,  buys  cattle  and  sheep  to  fatten,  he  ex 
pects  to  get  his  cost  price  back  again,  sooner  or  later, 
and  something  more.  In  just  the  same  way  if  he  lends 
proj^erty  to  another,  he  expects  to  get  repaid  with  some 
thing  into  the  bargain. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  services  of  what  is  called 
capital,  and  for  the  use  of  which  interest  is  paid,  are 
very  imjiortant ;  but  we  must  take  care  against  two  mis- 
takes. We  must  not  use  the  word  in  too  narrow  a 
sense ;  we  must  not  overrate  the  imjDortance  of  that 
sense  in  which  the  word  is  commonly  used. 

In  the  first  place,  as  I  have  told  you  before  several 
times,  there  is  no  value  in  any  thing  which  does  not  cost 
labor.  Now  any  thing  on  which  labor  has  been  bestowed, 
and  which  people  are  desirous  of  using  or  buying,  is  cap- 
ital. A  grown  workman  whose  work  is  worth  any  thing 
at  all,  is  as  much  capital  as  a  machine,  or  a  useful  ani- 
mal, or  any  other  kind  of  property  whatever.  If  a 
thousand  workmen  are  employed  by  a  builder,  each  one 
of  these  men  brings  capital  into  the  business  as  much  as 
the  employer  does  who  brings  bricks,  stone,  lime,  timber 


THE  EMPLOYEE'S  WAGES.  Ql 

m 

ladders,  and  the  like.  All  useful  things  which  can  be 
sold  are  wealth,  and  all  wealth  that  can  be  used  is  capi- 
tal. In  the  wages  Avhich  are  paid  to  workmen  for  their 
work,  part  is  interest  on  the  charge  laid  out  in  making 
the  workman  fit  for  his  calling ;  part  is  the  cost  of  find- 
ing him  food  and  other  necessaries ;  part  is  what  is  re- 
quired in  order  to  bring  up  other  workmen  (his  chil- 
dren), to  fill  his  place  when  he  is  gone ;  part  is,  or  ought 
to  be,  a  fund  for  him  when  he  is  sick  or  aged,  and  una- 
ble to  work. 

Xext  in  the  common  meaning  given  to  "  capital " — 
i.e.,  the  property  employed  to  keep  work  going  on  stead- 
ily— it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  capital  sets  the  la- 
borer to  work.  What  sets  him  to  work  is  the  needs  of 
those  who  will  use  his  work.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
the  steam-ensrine  and  the  water-wheel  set  a  flour-mill  to 
w^ork.  In  such  a  sense  the  capital  of  the  employer  may 
be  said  to  set  labor  to  work ;  but  every  child  will  see 
that  the  real  cause  which  sets  such  a  mill  to  work  is  the 
willingness  or  wish  of  people  to  buy  flour.  Sometimes 
people  talk  as  though  the  workman  were  under  an  obliga- 
tion to  his  employer,  or  as  if  the  former  depended  en- 
tirely on  the  latter.  Each  depends  on  the  other,  just  as 
the  blades  of  a  pair  of  scissors  do,  before  they  will  cut 
any  thing,  and  the  advantage  is  mutual. 

The  employer,  therefore,  gets  wages  for  the  work  he 
does  just  as  the  workman  does ;  but  he  also  gets  an  inter- 
est on  the  property  he  lays  out.  So  does  the  workman ; 
but  the  interest  which  the  workman  gets  is  mixed  up 
with  his  wages,  and  in  order  that  it  may  be  found  out, 
such  an  examination  as  I  have  given  you  is  needed. 


LESSON  XIII. 

IHE   USE   OF   GOLD   AND    SILVEK. 

I  HAVE  said,  several  times,  that  men  are  led  to  work 
by  their  wants,  and  that  the  work  which  one  man  does 
is  exchanged  against  the  work  which  another  man  does. 
The  agents  for  bringing  aboiit  this  exchange  are  those 
middlemen  who  are  called  employers,  merchants,  or 
shopkeepers,  as  the  way  in  which  they  do  this  service 
diflers  or  varies. 

But  it  is  very  rare  to  see  goods  bartered  against 
goods ;  it  is  never  the  case  that  they  are  valued  against 
each  other.  Generally  people  take  bits  of  metal  instead 
of  goods,  and  they  always  reckon  the  value  of  what 
they  bny  in  these  bits  of  metal.  In  common  language, 
they  give  ^  price  to  what  they  sell  or  buy. 

Now  why  should  people  do  this  ?  Bits  of  gold,  sil- 
ver, and  coj^per  do  not  seem  to  have  any  real  uSe ;  they 
do  not  satisfy  any  of  the  great  needs  of  life.  The  ut- 
most use  one  can  put  them  to  is  to  fasten  them  to  one's 
clothes,  in  order  to  make  one's  self  look  smart.  Some 
people  do  this.  And  yet  everybody  is  willing — nay, 
anxious — to  take  these  pieces  of  metal. 

The  fact  is  these  pieces  of  metal  save  a  vast  deal  of 
trouble.  If  it  were  not  for  them,  the  workman  who  has 
made  a  chair,  and  -wants  to  buy  bread,  would  have  to 


THE   USE   OF   GOLD   AND  SILVER.  63 

find  a  baker  who  wants  a  cliair,  before  he  could  get  his 
Avants  supplied  ;  and  this,  I  need  hardly  say,  would  cause 
a  terrible  waste  of  time.  Clearly  there  is  only  one  thing 
to  do.  It  is  necessary  to  discover  something  which  ev- 
erybody is  willing  to  take.  If  this  be  once  found  out, 
there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  the  chairmaker  getting 
bread,  provided  some  one  is  found  who  will  buy  his 
chair. 

Now  I  have  said  that  everybody  is  willing  to  take 
money,  and  because  everybody  is  willing  to  take  it,  it  is 
the  easiest  thing  to  get  rid  of,  the  most  convenient 
means  with  which  to  supply  one's  wants.  There  is 
nothing  which  is  generally  so  easy  to  sell  as  money — at 
least  under  ordinary  circumstances.  During  the  late 
siege  of  Paris  it  was  not  so  easy  to  sell  it,  because  food 
and  similar  necessaries  were  so  scarce ;  but  when  noth- 
ing out  of  the  Avay  happens,  there  is  no  object  which 
gives  its  possessor  so'much  power  over  property. 

The  man  who  takes  it  does  not  mean  to  keep  it.  It 
does  not  increase  in  value  because  he  keeps  it.  The 
only  way  in  which  it  can  be  turned  to  account  is  to  got 
rid  of  it.  A  person  who  hoards  or  saves  it  does  not  do 
80  merely  in  order  to  keep  it,  for  a  bag  of  stones  would 
in  such  a  case,  as  the  old  fable  says,  be  as  good  as  a  bag 
of  money  is,  but  because  he  knows  he  can  get  rid  of  it 
Avhen  he  pleases  with  advantage  or  pleasure  to  himself. 
They  who  save  to  the  most  purpose  get  rid  of  tlieir 
money  the  quickest,  either  by  buying  articles  to  trade 
with,  or  materials  to  work  on,  or  by  hiring  labor,  in 
the  making  railroads,  building  houses,  and  tlic  like,  or 
in  lending  it  to  those  who  do  those  things. 

Tlie  sooner  the  money,  tlien,  passes  from  hand  to 
hand,  the  better  does  it  serve  the  purpose  for  which  it 


64  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

was  discovered  and  adapted.  It  is  intended  to  circulate. 
It  is  called  currency,  from  a  Latin  word  which  means  to 
run  j  because  the  more  speedy  is  its  action,  and  the 
more  numerous  are  the  bargains  for  which  it  is  used, 
the  more  useful  do  people  find  it.  For  the  same  reason 
those  countries  which  are  the  busiest,  and  which  there- 
fore use  their  money  to  the  most  purpose,  are  able  to  do 
with  fewer  pieces  of  money  than  other  countries  where 
the  same  speed  of  circulation  is  not  attained^ 

How  useful  money  is,  may  be  easily  reckoned  if  one 
thinks  what  would  be  the  consequence  if  all  the  money 
of  a  country  were  suddenly  to  vanish.  Such  an  event 
would  cause  the  greatest  confusion  and  distress.  In 
time,  no  doubt,  matters  would  right  themselves,  either 
by  the  fresh  introduction  of  more  money,  or  by  the  dis- 
covery of  something  else  which  would  serve  to  measure 
the  value  of  things,  or  T3y  some  standard  or  measure 
which  should  express  the  market  worth  of  whatever  is 
wanted.  For  though  there  is  no  race  of  men,  possess 
ing  the  least  ciA'ilization,  Avhich  does  not  measure  the 
worth  of  the  things  which  the  people  produce  and  ex- 
change, yet  some  have  no  use  of  metals,  emj)loying  other 
articles  instead. 

Apart  from  the  convenience  which  money  affords 
buyers  and  sellers  on  a  small  scale,  it  has  a  further  ser- 
vice, as  a  measure  or  means  of  calculating  value. 

Trade  on  a  large  scale  is  always  in  goods.  Thus, 
for  example,  if  this  country  trades  with  France,  it  buys 
French  goods  with  American  goods,  or  with  goods 
which  have  been  bought  with  American  goods.  Unless 
It  is  found  convenient  to  do  so,  one  country  does  not 
pay  the  other  money ;  and  when  it  is  found  convenient, 
the  money  paid  is  not  really  money,  but  metal,  since 


THE   USE   OE   GOLD   AND   SILVER.  Q^ 

French  money  is  not  current  in  the  United  States,  nor  is 
American  money  in  France. 

But  though  no  money  passes  between  the  two  coitn- 
tries,  the  American  merchant  makes  out  his  bill  in  dol- 
lars and  cents ;  the  French  merchant  his  in  francs  and 
centimes.  These  diiierent  kinds  of  money  are  com 
pared  at  a  certain  rate — i.  e.,  five  francs  and  a  fractior 
are  reckoned  to  be  worth  an  American  dollar.  'Nor 
would  it  be  possible  to  carry  on  the  trade  between  the 
two  countries,  except  on  the  basis  of  some  such  reckon- 
ing. There  are  diiierent  qualities  of  goods — say  of  wine 
and  cloth — and  these  qualities  must  be  expressed  iu 
some  form,  standard,  or  measure. 

Children  who  read  this  little  book,  no  doubt,  have 
learned  a  little  of  what  are  called  vulgar  fractions.  Now 
you  cannot  add  fractions,  or  subtract  fractions,  without 
finding  out  the  common  denominator,  as  it  is  called,  of 
the  two  quantities  which  are  to  be  treated.  So  it  is  with 
exchanges.  You  cannot  strike  a  bargain  until  you  have 
agreed  upon  some  measure  which  shall  give  the  worth 
or  the  price  of  these  objects  which  are  to  be  exchanged. 

Money  then,  or  a  measure  of  value,  is  not  only  a  con- 
venience but  a  necessity ;  and  a  strange  thing  about  it  is, 
that  it  is  most  necessary,  even  when  it  is  not  actually 
used. 


LESSON  XIV. 

MONEY. 

It  is  not  so  -very  difficult  to  see  why  people  must 
take  something  by  which  they  may  measure  the  value  of 
every  thing  else,  and  how  inconvenient  it  would  be  Avere 
no  such  standard  or  measure  to  be  found.  But  why 
have  they  chosen  bits  of  two  metals  to  be  the  means  for 
this  measurement  ?  It  seems  as  though  it  were  impos- 
sible for  any  society  of  men  to  make  any  way  in  civiliza- 
tion, unless.they  have  some  such  means  of  bargaining. 
But  why  take  gold  and  silver  as  the  general  and  ready 
reckoners  of  all  values  ? 

Now  my  readers  may  perhaps  remember  that  I  have 
said,  more  than  once,  that  the  value  of  all  objects,  ser- 
vices, articles,  etc.,  is  measured  by  the  cost  of  getting 
them.  It  wnll  be  clear  also  that  in  taking  something 
which  shall  measure  any  other  thing,  it  is  of  importance 
that  the  measure  itself  should  change  as  little  as  possi- 
ble. Apart  from  their  use  as  money,  gold  and  silver 
have  other  and  very  important  uses,  and  therefore  are  lia- 
ble to  vary  in  value  as  Avell  as  other  things  do. 

But  within  a  limited  period — such  a  time  I  mean  as 
a  person  would  keep  gold  and  silver  by  him — these 
articles  change  less  in  value  than  any  other  thing  be- 
sides     Over  a  long  period  they  are  subject  to  changes 


MONEY.  '  G7 

in  value.  Thus,  a  pound  weight  of  silver,  five  hundred 
years  ago,  would  have  boiight  four  times  as  much  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  as  it  now  would.  But  from  day  to 
day,  week  to  week,  year  to  year,  money  Aaries  in  value 
less  than  any  thing  else.  There  are  two  reasons  for  this. 
First,  gold  and  silver  are  generally  obtained  in  nearly 
equal  quantities  at  nearly  equal  cost.  You  hear  some- 
times of  some  lucky  miner  who  has  found  a  great  lump 
of  gold,  or  has  come  across  some  very  rich  vein  of  sil- 
ver; but  these  things  are  rare.  The  great  majority  of 
those  who  seek  for  either  give  a  great  deal  of  labor  for 
every  ounce  or  pound  they  get ;  so  much  labor  that  noth- 
ing but  the  very  high  price  they  obtain  for  these  metals 
would  induce  them  to  work  for  them  at  all.  The  la- 
bor which  gets  gold  out  of  rocks  is  very  costly.  It 
exists,  as  a  rule,  in  such  small  quantities  in  very  hard 
rocks,  that  it  cannot  be  seen,  but  can  be  gathered  only 
by  crushing  the  rock  to  powder,  and  then  mixing  it 
with  another  metal,  which  has  the  property  of  melt- 
ing out  the  gold,  in  just  the  same  way  that  water  dis- 
solves salt. 

There  have  been  times  in  history  when  gold  and  sil- 
ver have  been  obtained  at  greatly  diminished  cost.  This 
was  the  case  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  Spanish 
conquerors  of  the  'New  World  became  the  possessors 
of  great  quantities  of  silver,  and  by  their  means  the  rest 
of  the  civilized  world  procured  it.  This  wealth  was 
obtained  by  the  enforced  labor  of  the  native  people,  and 
was  therefore,  as  far  as  the  Spaniards  were  concerned, 
cheaply  Avon.  But  such  occurrences  are  very  rare,  and 
for  the  sake  of  humanity  we  will  hope  that  they  will 
never  recur. 

Next,  the  stocks  of  the  precious  metals — as  gold  and 


6*8  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

silver  are  called — are  so  large,  that  any  notable  increase 
to  their  quantity  in  any  one  year  will  have  little  eifect 
in  diminishing  the  value  of  that  which  has  already  been 
collected.  If  the  crojjs  in  any  one  year  are  greatly  in 
excess  of  those  which  are  generally  garnered,  the  prices 
of  farm-produce  will  greatly  fall,  since  most  of  that 
which  is  produced  in  any  year  is  consumed  in  the  same 
year,  or  before  the  next  harvest.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  when  there  are  very  scanty  croj)s,  there  is  a  great 
rise  in  the  price  of  such  produce.  But  the  stock  of  gold 
and  silver  already  existing  is  very  large,  and  therefore  a 
great  increase  obtained  in  any  one  year  is  lost  m  the  far 
greater  quantity  which  society  possesses.  If  a  storm 
occurs  in  the  mountains,  the  little  brooks  swell  speedily 
into  great  torrents ;  but  if  there  be  a  vast  lake  into 
which  these  torrents  fall,  very  little  eftect  will  be  pro- 
duced upon  it  by  the  quantity  of  water  wliich  has  fallen 
in  any  storm,  however  heavy  may  be  the  fall  of  water 
during  the  time  the  rain  lasts. 

Next,  gold  and  silver  represent  great  value  in  small 
compass.  To  get  them  requires  great  labor.  They  are 
generally  found  in  regions  where  there  is  little  else, 
whither  the  food  of  the  miner  has  to  be  carried  at  e^reat 
expense ;  and  they  are  obtained  by  expensive  processes. 
Were  these  metals  cheaply  got,  their  use  would  be  seri- 
ously lessened,  as  it  would  take  so  much  of  each  in  or- 
der to  exchange  for  goods. 

Next,  they  are  almost  incaj^able  of  being  destroyed. 
Gold  is  not  tarnished  by  any  natural  substance,  silver  by 
hardly  iny ;  hence  they  sufier  no  waste  by  being  kept 
and  used,  beyond  wear.  A  man  who  takes  gold  and 
silver  expects  that  hereafter  he  Avill  be  able  to  get  rid  of 
them,  on  as  good  terms  as  he  could  have  obtained  when 


MONEY.  69 

he  received  them ;  but  he  would  not  be  sure  of  this  if 
they  wasted,  or  underwent  any  change. 

Again,  they  may  be  cut  up  into  small  pieces,  and  put 
together  again  with  ease.  A  weight  of  gold  and  silver 
is  of  the  same  value  whether  it  be  La  small  or  large 
pieces.  In  many  objects  small  pieces  are  of  little  or  no 
value,  while  large  pieces  are  of  great  value.  This  is 
the  case  with  precious  stones,  for  the  large  are  scarce, 
and  the  small  by  comparison  common.  Little  and  great 
however,  would  be  of  equal  value,  if  the  stones  could 
be  melted  into  a  mass  as  easily  as  pieces  of  metal  can. 

Lastly,  they  are  capable  of  being  marked  in  such  a 
manner  as  that  even  a  child  can  understand  their  value. 
This  marking  or  coining  pieces  of  money  is  always  the 
business  of  Government,  because  it  is  of  great  conse- 
quence that  the  fineness  of  the  money,  and  also  the  weight 
of  the  piece,  should  be  certified,  though  the  former  is  the 
most  important.  To  issue  base  money  is  a  great  offence, 
not  only  because  it  is  a  particularly  mean  kind  of  steal- 
ing, but  because  it  is  one  which  puts  the  greatest  hard- 
ship on  those  who  can  bear  it  the  least — namely,  the 
poor  and  inexperienced. 

The  above  are  the  qualities  which,  being  possessed 
by  gold  and  silver,  and  being  shared  by  no  other  objects 
whatever,  have  caused  those  metals  to  be  chosen  by 
almost  universal  consent,  as  the  measure  of  value  and 
the  means  of  exchange.  When  they  are  supplied,  and 
can  be  used,  they  are  always  acceyited  by  races  which 
ai"e  capable  of  being  civilized;  while  such  races  as  will 
not  or  cannot  use  them  always  melt  away  before  more 
robust  and  vigorous  nations,  since  their  ignorance  and 
incapacity  puts  tlfem  to  so  serious  a  disadvantage  beside 
their  neighbors  and  rivals. 


70  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

These  metals  may  be  compared  to  the  oil  which 
makes  machinery  go  smoothly.  The  force  of  the  ma- 
chine is  given  it  when  it  is  completed  and  moved  ;  but 
unless  oil  is  sujjplied  to  the  joints,  valves,  or  axles,  the 
machine  cannot  continue  in  motion,  but  is  speedilj 
clogged  and  stopped. 


lesso:n"  XV. 

SUBSTITUTES   FOR   MOi^EY. 

AiioifG  the  reasons  which  have  mduced  men  to  adopt 
gold  and  silvei"  as  a  means  for  carrying  on  trade  is,  as  I 
have  said  before,  that  these  metals  represent  great  value 
in  small  compass.  But  this  very  reason  induces  the 
people  who  use  them  to  use  as  little  as  they  can  of  them. 
They  cost  very  much,  and  therefore  men  strive  to  lay 
out  as  little  cost  as  possible  on  them.  Now  there  are 
two  ways  in  which  the  use  of  these  metals  is  narrowed. 
One  is  to  make  each  piece  da  for  as  many  acts  of  trade 
as  possible,  or  in  other  words,  to  change  hands  as  often 
as  may  be. 

Unless  men  trust  each  other,  they  are  obliged  to 
take  every  possible  care  against  risk.  In  a  country 
where  there  is  little  confidence  between  man  and  man, 
where  trust  is  warily  and  scantily  given,  there  is  need 
for  far  more  money  than  in  a  country  where  confidence 
and  mutual  trust  are  the  rule.  Everybody  w^ho  is  not 
living  from  hand  to  mouth  keeps  some  small  stock  of 
money  in  his  possession,  in  order  to  meet  his  every-day 
wants ;  but  when  distrust  is  general,  j^rudence  requires 
persons  to  keep  a  larger  stock  of  this  kind  of  property, 
and  consequently  to  use  more  money.  The  civilization 
of  a  coimtry  is  not  measured  by  the  amount  of  gold  and 


72  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

silver  which  it  has,  but  by  the  integi'ity,  mutual  trust, 
and  intelligence  of  its  inhabitants.  It  is  possible  that  the 
people  of  a  half-barbarous  country  like  Turkey  may  have 
more  money  than  a  thriving  and  busy  country  like  our 
own ;  but  the  money  is  not  turned  to  so  good  an  ac- 
count. 

The  other  way  in  which  the  use  of  money  is  saved, 
is  to  discover  some  substitute  for  its  use.  Now,  long 
ago,  persons  have  found  out  that  bits  of  paper,  having  no 
value  in  themselves,  but  giving  the  possessor  of  them  a 
right  to  claim  a  sum  of  money,  would,  in  many  particu- 
lars, serve  the  purpose  of  the  real  money,  and  in  some 
cases  would  be  more  convenient.  This  substitute  for  the 
use  of  money  is  called  a  bank-note. 

Now  it  is  not  to  be  expected,  in  a  little  work  like 
this,  intended  for  beginners  in  social  science,  that  I  can 
enter  into  all  the  peculiarities  belonging  to  such  a  use  of 
printed  pieces  of  paper;  the  subject  would  be  too  long, 
and  the  exj)lanation  in  detail  would  be  too  difficult.  But 
in  order  to  understand  this  part  of  the  social  system  un- 
der which  we  live,  it  is  almost  necessary  to  know  a  little 
about  the  use  of  these  pieces  of  paper,  since  they  play 
so  important  a  part  in  trade  and  exchange. 

It  is  no  use  to  try  to  circulate  these  pieces  of  paper, 
unless  the  person  who  takes  them  is  quite  certain  that 
he  will  get  the  sum  of  money  which  they  profess  to  be 
worth,  whenever  he  wishes  it.  Men  take  money  itself 
because  it  is  the  most  convenient  and  ready  way  of  sup- 
plying their  wants.  A  man  with  five  dollars  has  a  much 
greater  command  over  what  he  needs,  than  a  man  has 
with  five  dollars'  worth  of  goods — as  of  shoes,  bread,  or 
furniture. 

So  if  men  take  any  thing  which  pretends  to  represent 


SUBSTITUTES  FOR  MONEY.  73 

money,  it  is  no  use  to  offer  them  something  instead  of 
money,  however  vahiable  that  may  be  which  is  offered. 
If  the  piece  of  paper  promises  to  pay  them  five  dollars, 
it  will  not  satisfy  them  if  the  person  who  pledges  to  pay 
this  money  offers  to  pay  them  five  dollars'  worth  of 
something.  If  they  suspect  that  the  person  who  prom- 
ises money  intends  to  pay  them  something  else,  they 
will  not  talce  and  use  his  bits  of  paper,  or  will  not  use 
them  very  long. 

Plain  as  this  may  seem  to  us,  it  has  taken  a  very  long 
time  to  make  the  rule  miderstood.  At  different  times, 
governments  have  tried  to  circulate  such  pieces  of  paper, 
and  in  place  of  giving  money,  have  oftered  laud,  or  other 
property.  The  attempt  has  always  been  a  failure — a 
loss,  and  occasionally  a  great  public  misfortune. 

Now  if  the  pieces  of  paper  thus  put  out  were  ex- 
actly equal  in  value  to  the  money  for  which  they  are 
used,  and  exactly  that  sum  of  money  were  kept  by  the 
person  who  promised  to  pay  the  quantity  of  money 
which  each  of  these  papers  represent,  no  gain  or  advan- 
tage would  be  made  by  the  persons  who  circulate  the 
paper ;  but  a  certain  loss  would  be  incurred  in  the  labor 
of  preparing  these  pieces  of  paper,  and  in  that  of  keep- 
ing an  account  of  them.  They  who  use  the  paper 
would  have  some  advantages.  The  gold  and  silvei 
would  not  wear  at  all,  and  the  loss  of  the  piece  of  paper 
need — with  proper  care  taken — be  no  real  loss  to  the 
person  who  possessed  it,  because  if  he  could  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  paper,  he  might,  in  time,  be  repaid  its  value. 

But  the  persons  who  put  this  paper  into  circulation  find 

out,  after  a  time,  that  they  can  send  a  great  deal  more 

of  these  papers  out  than  they  have  money  at  any  moment 

to  pay  with,  provided  always  that  people  will  trust  to 

4 


74  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

them.  The  rest  they  can  employ  in  other  objectg,  tak- 
ing care  to  have  their  property  m  such  a  shape  that  if 
there  be  some  sudden  need  for  more  money,  they  sliall 
be  able  to  get  it  together  in  a  very  short  time.  In  other 
words,  the  promise  to  pay  will  be  taken  as  readily  as 
real  money  will,  and  for  a  time  do  everything  that  real 
money  does. 

The  sending  out  these  bits  of  printed  paper  is  part 
of  the  business  which  a  banker  carries  on.  It  is  not  in- 
deed his  only  business,  for  he  does  other  things  which 
are,  as  I  have  said,  too  difficult  for  beginners  in  this  sub- 
ject to  understand.  This,  however,  I  hope  they  will 
understand — that  a  bank-note  is  something  which  may 
be  used  instead  of  money ;  that  its  use  saves  some  of 
that  very  expensive  article,  and  that  it  therefore  enables 
trade  to  be  carried  on  with  some  lessening  of  cost. 

I  have  now  pointed  out  to  you  what  are  the  general 
rules  which  belong  to  labor  and  trade,  why  it  is  men  la- 
bor, and  why  they  exchange  with  each  other  the  pro- 
duce of  their  several  kinds  of  industry.  This  is,  from 
one  point  of  view,  an  account  of  the  way  in  which  soci- 
ety grows,  and  is  held  together.  Men  live  together  in 
order  to  do  each  other  benefit,  to  supply  each  other's 
wants ;  and  they  are  able  to  do  this  best  when  each  man 
betakes  himself  to  that  kind  of  work  for  which  he  is  fit- 
test, and  for  which  his  neighbor  has  some  need.  Social 
life  is  like  a  vast  machine  composed  of  a  great  number 
of  parts ;  each  of  these  parts,  however,  assists  the  other 
parts — is  necessary  or  convenient  to  the  working  of  the 
whole. 


LESSON  XVI. 

FREEDOM   AND   SLAVERY. 

If  everybody  were  wise  and  just;  if  no  wrong 
were  done  by  man  to  man,  and  no  injury  inflicted  on  na- 
tion by  nation ;  if  every  man  were  sure  to  get  the  fruit 
of  his  labor,  to  pass  his  life  without  suffering  mjustice — 
if,  in  short,  there  were  no  bad  and  cruel  people  in  the 
world,  the  sketch  which  I  have  given  you  of  social  life 
might  be  completed  in  the  pages  which  you  have  already 
studied. 

Unfortunately,  we  are  far  removed  from  so  pleasant 
a  state  of  things.  It  is  necessary  that  persons  should  bt 
protected  in  the  peaceful  exercise  of  their  labor,  and  ir 
the  i^eaceful  enjoyment  of  that  which  they  have  earned 
by  their  labor.  They  who  have  wealth  require  to  be 
checked,  lest  they  oppress  those  who  are  more  or  less  in 
their  power.  Those  who  are  poor  sometimes  need  an- 
other kind  of  check,  lest  they  try  to  violently  seize  that 
which  they  do  not  possess,  but  which  they  see  others 
possess.  In  brief,  the  most  civilized  nation  needs  law 
and  government,  in  order  that  it  may  be  kept  together. 

Law  professes  to  declare  what  are  rights  and  what 
are  wrongs,  and  proposes  to  defend  rights  and  correal 
wrongs — to  secure  each  man  in  the  possession  of  that 
which  really  belongs  to  him,  and  to  protect  him  from  any 


76  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

attempt  on  the  part  of  others  to  interrupt  his  enjoyment 
of  that  which  does  belong  to  him.  These  rights,  again, 
either  belong  to  a  man's  person  or  to  his  property — by 
property  being  meant  whatever  a  man  has  lawfully  ob- 
taiuecl,  and  which,  within  certain  limits,  he  can  enjoy. 

Now  one  of  the  most  important  rights  which  a  per- 
son can  be  held  to  possess  is  that  over  his  own  labor. 
Nearly  every  civilized  nation  has  agreed  that  no  person 
can  acquire  a  right  to  the  perpetual  labor  of  another  person 
— or,  in  other  words,  make  him  a  slave.  At  diflPerent 
periods  of  their  history  all  civilized  nations  have  allowed 
the  right  of  a  master  over  a  slave ;  now  nearly  every 
nation  refuses  to  allow  it,  and  in  case  any  person  claims 
such  a  right,  will  decline  to  enforce  it,  and  will  give  a 
remedy  against  aU  such  as  pretend  to  keep  persons  in 
slavery. 

Now  how  comes  it  to  pass  that  so  great  a  change  as 
this  has  come  over  the  spirit  of  civilized  life  ?  Slavery 
prevailed  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome — two  societies  as 
much  civilized  in  many  particulars  as  we  are. 

I  believe  that  the  first  motive  which  led  men  to  raise 
the  question  whether  slavery  was  not  always  a  wrong, 
which  never  could  be  justified,  was  the  feeling  that 
every  man  has  certain  natural  rights,  and  that  if  he  has 
any,  personal  freedom  must  surely  be  the  first  of  these 
rights,  seeing  that,  if  it  be  absent,  no  other  right  can  be- 
long to  him. 

When  persons  began  to  hold  this  opinion,  they  found 
0l^t  speedily  other  reasons  against  holding  men  in  per- 
petual bondage.  It  was  seen  that  while  slavery  degrades 
*the  slave,  it  does  nearly  as  much  mischief  to  the  owner 
of  the  slave.  "  It  is  impossible  to  quench  the  wish  for 
freedom,  at  least"  if  any  chance  of  escape  appears  to  the 


FEEEDOM   AND   SLAVERY.  77 

slave ;  aud  thus  it  became,  or  seemed  to  become,  the  in- 
terest of  the  slavemaster  to  make  his  slave  ignorant  and 
wretched,  to  reduce  him  as  much  as  possible  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  beast.  Now  no  one  can  treat  his  fellow-man 
ia  this  way  without  becoming  brutal  himself 

Again,  it  was  seen  that  if  a  man  were  to  be  kept  in 
slavery,  the  law  must  put  very  little  control  on  the  acts 
of  his  owner.  ISTow  men  become  civihzed,  not  by  in- 
dulging passion,  but  by  checking  it ;  not  by  ruling  over 
others,  but  by  ruling  over  themselves.  The  custom  of 
slavery  was  therefore  an  aid  to  barbarism,  no  assistance 
to  civilization.  It  produced  grave  moral  evils  in  society, 
and  was  a  lasting  hindrance  to  good  influences. 

Again,  it  was  gradually  discovered  that  where  slavery 
prevails  very  little  progress  is  ever  made  in  the  useful 
arts.  The  minds  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans 
were  very  much  cultivated.  These  two  nations  made 
remarkable  progress  in  what  are  called  the  fine  arts. 
Their  architecture  and  sculpture  are  even  now  models, 
for  they  have  hardly  been  equalled  in  the  one,  and  by  no 
means  equalled  in  the  other.  In  the  same  way  they 
were  eminent  in  poetry  and  oratory,  and  they  made  great 
advances  in  many  kinds  of  science.  But  they  knew  very 
little  of  the  useful  arts.  They  had  hardly  invented  a 
sinofle  machine  which  should  save  labor — had  discovered 
none  of  those  forces  which  are  so  familiar  to  us.  In  con- 
sequence, despite  their  great  culture,  the  knowledge  they 
possessed,  and  the  perfection  to  which  they  carried  such 
civilization  as  they  had,  their  whole  social  system 
crumbled  away  against  the  attacks  of  certain  savage 
tribes. 

The  fact  is,  the  motive  for  saving  labor  by  means  of 
mechanical  inventions  never  came  home  to  them.     In 


78  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

the  ancient  world  the  labor  of  the  hands  was  held  to  dis- 
honor a  man,  to  be  fit  only  for  slaves.  Now  the  princi- 
pal cause  which  has  led  men  to  invent  labor-saving  ma- 
chines is  the  impulse  which  I  have  stated  before — that, 
namely,  of  getting  the  greatest  possible  recompense  for 
one's  labor,  with  the  least  possible  outlay  of  labor. 
While  a  man  is  a  slave,  since  all  his  labor,  and  all  the 
fruits  of  his  labor,  belong  to  his  owner,  there  can  be  no 
motive  to  save  labor — no  motive  to  the  slave,  for  he  will 
get  nothing  by  it ;  no  motive  to  the  owner,  for  he  dis- 
dains to  lighten  the  slave's  toil.  Where  slavery  lives, 
invention  is  dead. 

Whenever  free  labor  competes  against  slave  labor, 
the  former  is  sure  to  win  the  day,  the  latter  to  be  found 
expensive  and  uncertain.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
slave  labor  has  not  sometimes  been  profitable  to  the 
owner,  but  that  whenever  the  two  exist  together  the  free 
man  will  work  more  cheaply — that  is,  to  greater  purpose 
than  the  slave.  For  it  will  be  seen  that  the  owner  has 
to  purchase  or  rear  the  slave,  and  therefore  has  to  set 
down  this  article  of  cost.  Then  no  man  who  works  for 
another  ever  works  with  so  much  heart  as  when  he  is 
working  for  himself  A  free  man  may  be  trusted;  a 
slave  always  wants  an  overlooker.  You  can  trust  a  free 
man  to  handle  machinery  or  to  manage  such  work  as  re- 
quires care  and  attention.  But  the  slave  has  no  motive 
to  take  care  of  that  which  is  trusted  to  him,  and  hence 
he  can  only  be  put  to  the  simplest  kind  of  work  with  the 
commonest  possible  tools. 

Civilized  nations,  then,  have  refused  to  allow  any  one 
man  a  perpetual  right  to  the  labor  of  another,  because 
freedom  of  labor  is  a  natural  right.  But  a  man  who  com- 
mits crime  forfeits  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  his  natural 


FREEDOil  AND   SLAVERY.  79 

rights,  and  among  them  his  natural  rights  of  liberty. 
Hence  all  communities  have  their  public  slaves — i.  e., 
men  condemned  for  a  period,  more  or  less  prolonged,  to 
compulsory  labor  on  behalf  of  the  State.  To  protect  its 
subjects,  a  Government  is  obliged  to  restrain  criminals. 
But  it  is  not  right  that  such  persons  should  subsist  in 
idleness ;  hence  it  exacts  labor  from  them,  and  for  reasons 
conceived  to  be  sufficient,  reduces  them  to  the  slavery 
which  they  have  merited. 


LESSON"  XVII. 

PAEEKT    AKD     CHILD. 

There  are  certain  kinds  of  property — as  that  of  a 
master  over  a  slave — which  civilized  laAV  will  'not  recog- 
nize. There  is  another  kind  of  property — as  that  of  a 
parent  over  a  child — which  the  law  recognizes  to  a  lim- 
ited extent.  There  have  been  comitries  in  which  a  fath- 
er had  the  same  rights  over  a  child  which  some  laws  have 
given  an  owner  over  a  slave.  In  ancient  Rome  the  risrht 
was  even  larger  and  more  enduring. 

A  child  owes  his  nm-ture  and  education  to  his  pa- 
rents. He  has  received  from  them  benefits  of  the  high- 
est kind,  which,  though  the  duty  of  the  parents  renders 
them,  are  not  the  less  grave  to  the  child.  But  as  law 
cannot  allow  the  constant  submission  of  one  man's  lib- 
erty to  another,  so  it  cannot  permit  the  child  to  be  con- 
stantly subject  to  the  parents'  will.  There  is  a  period 
when  a  parent's  authority  is  no  longer  absolute,  however 
much  it  should  always  be  respected. 

During  those  years  when  the  child  is,  in  the  eye  of 
the  law,  unable  to  exercise  his  own  discretion  in  his  oc- 
cupation, the  child  is  in  a  sense  his  parents'  2)i"operty. 
Custom  may  shorten  or  lengthen  this  time,  but  there  al- 
ways is  a  period  during  which  no  one  interferes  with  the 
parents'  discretion,  certain  conditions  being  fulfilled. 


PARENT  AND  CHILD.  81 

But  civilized  commimities  will  uot  allow  a  parent  to 
injiu-e  his  chikVs  health  or  to  dwarf  his  mind  by  setting 
him  to  work  too  early  or  too  long,  and  in  our  time,  at 
last,  by  denying  him  education.  In  many  countries  edu- 
cation is  compulsory — that^is,  the  child  must  be  taught 
under  penalties.  It  is  seen  that  to  deny  a  child  teach- 
ing, is  to  deny  him  a  necessary  of  civilized  life,  which 
is  inferior  to  what  are  called  the  common  needs  of 
life,  only  because  these  must  be  bestowed  whatever  else 
is  given. 

There  are  laws  which  forbid  the  employment  of  chil- 
dren in  certain  kinds  of  work  altogether,  which  only  al- 
low a  short  time  every  day  or  week  for  employment  in 
others,  and  which  compel  work  and  education  to  go  on 
together,  or  at  stated  intervals.  It  is  plain  that  by  early 
working  or  overworkmg  a  child,  a  lifelong  injury  may  be 
inflicted  on  them. 

It  is  the  business  of  law  to  protect  the  weak  against 
the  strong.  The  greater  part  of  the  action  of  law 
has  this  object.  To  take  a  man's  property  from  him 
unlawfully,  to  give  him  bodily  pain,  or  inflict  on  him 
bodily  hurt,  to  injure  his  character  by  false  statements, 
is  to  lay  a  strong  hand  on  one  who  is,  in  some  direction 
or  other,  weaker  than  the  wi*ong-doer.  If  such  violence 
be  permitted,  the  law  fails  to  do  its  work. 

It  is  clear,  then,  why  law  protects  children  even 
agamst  their  j^arents.  It  does  not  follow  that  men  will 
always  make  a  right  use  of  that  wliich  is  their  own,  even 
when  afiection,  duty,  or  interest  might  prompt  them  to 
do  so.  And  as  the  good  of  one  person  may  be  made 
subject  to  the  passion  or  caprice  of  another,  it  is  neces- 
sary for  law  to  protect  the  weaker  person  against  wrong. 
It  is  seldom  the  case  that  parents  lose  their  natural  att'ec- 
i* 


82  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

tion  for  their  children,  but  they  do  so  often  enough  to 
justify  the  law  in  interfering. 

Besides,  there  are  some  instances  in  which  the  judg- 
ment of  the  law  is  better  than  that  of  the  individual 
man ;  there  are  some  in  which  it  is  worse.  Generally 
a  man  can  tell  better  than  any  law  can  inform  him,  what 
is  the  calling  in  which  he  is  most  likely  to  prosper.  A 
law  therefore  which  should  pretend  to  dictate  to  any  one' 
which  calling  or  business  he  should  follow,  is  a  mischiev- 
ous law.  There  are  some  countries  where  the  law  con- 
strains a  son  to  follow  his  father's  business.  Now  in 
such  coimtries  very  little  progress  is  made. 

The  judgment  of  the  law  is  better,  however,  than 
that  of  a  man  on  most  matters  of  general  interest,  par- 
ticularly when  the  object  for  which  the  thing  is  done  is 
neither  very  near  nor  very  plain.  For  instance,  there 
are  many  kinds  of  work  which  no  man  would  ever  pay 
for,  because  he  is  unable  to  see  his  own  advantage  in  the 
purchase,  or  because  he  is  not  able  to  keep  the  advantage 
of  the  piu'chase  to  himself  Suppose,  for  example,  that 
some  man  of  science  were  able  to  prove  that  there  is 
coal  in  the  Gulf  States,  at  a  depth  which  might  be 
worked.  Everybody  who  had  land  in  which  this  coal 
might  be  found  would  gain  a  benefit  by  the  discovery, 
but  no  one  person  could  keep  the  knowledge  to  himself 
If,  therefore,  such  a  discovery  could  be  made,  the  law 
should  reward  such  a  person.  Very  many  examples 
could  be  given  of  such  kinds  of  work  or  service. 

But  the  case  is  still  stronger  in  the  matter  of  general 
education.  The  best  result  of  a  good  education  is  that 
it  enables  the  man  who  has  it,  to  do  what  he  has  to  do 
in  a  far  shorter  time  than  he  could  without  it,  or  to  do 
that  which  he  could  not  have  done  at  all  without  it. 


PARENT  AND  CHILD.  83 

For  instance,  a  savage  can  seldom  count  more  than  ten, 
and  can  do  nothing  beyond  this  very  beginning  of  aritli- 
metic.  A  child  who  has  been  taught  a  few  rules  can 
rapidly  do  that  by  which  the  cleverest  savage  would  be 
foUed.  A  man  who  has  learnt  to  read  and  write  will 
learn  a  soldier's  drill  in  half  the  time  that  a  wholly  igno- 
rant recruit  will  need  for  the  same  result.  Education, 
in  short,  is  to  know  the  best  way  how  to  do  any  thing. 
It  is  said  that  the  Northern  Germans,  who  are  all  edu- 
cated, are  the  handiest  men  in  the  world,  because  their 
minds  are  trained,  and  are  therefore  always  alert. 

It  is  not,  however,  wonderful  that  ignorant  people 
cannot  understand  the  value  of  education,  any  more 
than  deaf  men  can  the  beauty  of  a  piece  of  good  music. 
Sometimes,  to  be  sure,  parents  who  are  themselves 
ignorant  can  see  the  advantage  which  learning  gives  to 
him  who  has  it,  and  are  therefore,  from  natural  affection, 
willing  or  anxious  that  their  children  should  gain 
advantages  which  they  themselves  do  not  possess.  But 
there  is  no  little  risk  that  they  will  not  notice  this 
benefit. 

Here,  then,  the  law  steps  in.  It  takes  as  it  were  the 
survey  of  the  whole  landscape.  If  your  eyes  wander 
over  a  distant  view,  such  as  that  which  you  get  from  a 
high  hill,  or  a  lofty  building,  you  can  gain  a  general  idea 
of  the  scene  which  is  spread  out  before  you,  though  you 
may  not  be  able  to  see  the  faces  of  those  who  are  in 
the  streets  below,  or  tell  what  the  trees  are  which  rise 
in  the  distant  fields.  So  it  is  with  the  State.  It  can- 
not tell  what  each  man  should  do  for  his  own  particular 
work,  but  it  can  direct,  and  that  with  cei-tainty,  what 
must  be  obtained  by  all,  in  order  that  each  may  do  his 
own  work  in  the  best  way. 


LESSON  xvm. 

PUBLIC     EDTCATIOIS". 

The  law  may  insist  on  the  education  of  the  people. 
There  are  two  reasons  why  it  should  do  so.  One  of 
them  is  that  the  educated  person  is  of  more  use  to  his 
fellow-men  than  an  untaught  person,  or  as  may  he  said 
in  other  words,  is  less  dangerous  to  others.  The  other 
is  that  the  educated  person  is  more  useful  to  himself 
Now  if  it  can  be  shown  that  the  same  process  makes 
a  man  more  serviceable  to  his  neighbor,  and  more  pros- 
perous in  his  own  fortunes,  it  needs  very  little  argument 
to  prove  that  the  process  is  a  very  wholesome  one. 

I  have  abeady  said  that  a  man  who  has  been  taught 
one  thing,  learns  other  things  more  quickly  than  a  person 
who  is  wholly  imtaught.  A  man  who  has  learnt  to  be 
a  carpenter,  and  requires  to  be  instructed  in  the  art  of  a 
smith,  will  learn  to  be  a  smith  sooner  than  he  wol^ld  if 
he  had  been  taught  no  other  handicraft.  A  man  who  has 
learned  French,  or  Latin,  or  Greek  thoroughly,  will  master 
German  more  easily  than  one  who  has  never  known  any 
other  language  than  his  mother-tongue.  He  who  has 
learnt  only  one  language,  says  the  proverb,  has  learnt 
none.  A  man  who  has  learned  to  ride,  or  to  swim,  will 
learn  to  skate  more  rapidly  than  one  who  has  never  sat 
a  horse,  or  kept  himself  afloat  in  water. 


\ 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION.  85 

Of  course  there  are  some  kinds  of  teaching  which 
make  the  mind  more  easily  active  than  others  do — that 
is,  Avhich  are  better  instruments  of  education.  They 
•who  have  given  their  attention  to  the  discovery  of  the 
best  instruments  of  education  always  propose  to  them- 
selves to  settle  what  is  the  best  means  for  making  the 
mind  generally  active.  Experience  has  proved  that  if 
a  person  has  been  taught  certain  things,  he  will  learu 
every  thing  more  easily  than  if  he  had  been  taught  other 
things.  For  example,  though  a  person  will  not  readily 
learn  language,  because  he  has  been  taught  to  ride,  he 
will  learn  to  ride  more  easily  when  he  has  been  taught 
langiiage. 

The  kind  of  learning  which  makes  a  man  apt  to  learn 
other  things  is  that  which  gives  a  man  the  habit  of 
thinkins:  without  seeing — which  enables  him  to  follow 
out  in  his  mind  something  which  may  be  thought  of, 
without  the  need  of  seeing  any  thing  which  should 
remind  him  of  it.  Thus  mathematics  are  a  great  aid  to 
education,  because  they  assist  this  power.  In  arith- 
metic Ave  think  of  numbers  without  considering  the 
objects  which  those  numbers  represent.  In  a  still  more 
marked  manner  is  this  the  case  with  higher  mathe- 
matics— with  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry.  So 
language,  particularly  a  language  which,  having  been 
highly  cultivated,  has  been  rendered  unchangeable 
because  it  has  ceased  to  be  spoken,  is  a  very  powerful 
means  of  mental  culture.  The  study  of  mathematics 
and  of  language  gives  men  the  power  of  exact  and  rapid 
thought,  and  enables  them  to  be  quick  and  intelligent. 

When  a  man  learns  rapidly,  he  is  plainly  able  to  do 
his  fellow-man  a  service,  sooner  and  more  completely, 
than  he  does  if  he  is  slow.     I  am,  of  course,  speaking 


86  SOCIAL  ECOXOJVIY. 

of  those  services  which,  being  useful,  are  understood 
and  valued.  A  boy  is  taken  as  an  apprentice  to  learn 
some  skilful  trade.  The  boy  who  learns  the  trade  La 
half  the  time  that  another  takes,  is  by  far  the  more 
valuable  apj^rentice  of  the  two.  He  begins  to  earn  his 
cost  much  earlier.  The  wisest  and  the  most  useful 
men  in  the  Avorld  have  taken  the  pains  to  learn  their 
work  thoroughly,  and  to  do  their  work  well.  Now  such 
persons  have  always  been  taught  some  thhigs  which 
have  aided  them  in  gaining  the  special  knowledge  which 
they  want.  In  short,  there  are  some  kinds  of  knowl- 
edge which  are  uniformly  useful  for  every  other  kind'of 
knowledge,  and  to  understand  and  impai-t  this  knowl- 
edge is  to  educate  people ;  to  get  the  knowledge  is  to 
be  educated,  in  greater  or  less  degree  according  as  this 
master  knowledge  is  imparted. 

It  is  still  a  question  as  to  which  is  the  best  kind  of 
master  knowledge.  It  is  likely  that  the  question  would 
never  have  been  asked,  if  there  had  not  been  several 
kinds  of  training ;  every  one  of  which  is  very  useful  for 
the  end  which  all  education  has  in  view.  It  is  probable 
that  no  one  will  ever  be  able  to  answer  the  question,  be- 
caiise  there  are  several  kinds  of  this  master  knowledge, 
and  so  many  varieties  of  mind  that  one  kind  of  knowl- 
edge suits  this  mind  best,  another  that.  The  real  ques- 
tion is,  whether  the  mind  of  each  person  is  really  trained 
by  what  he  has  learned.  Some  people  grow  strong  on 
a  meat  diet ;  some  on  a  bread  or  vegetable  diet.  The 
most  imijortant  thing  to  those  who  wish  to  be  strong  is, 
not  what  kind  of  food  is  most  suitable  generally,  but 
what  suits  each  the  best. 

Next,  education  is — as  indeed,  you  will  have  guessed 
from  what  I  liave  already  said — a  great  service  to  the 


PUBLIC   EDUCATION.  87 

man  who  has  it.  If  you  have  ever  noticed  a  chxmsy  per- 
son trying  to  do  a  thing  -\vhicli  wholly  puzzles  him,  and 
a  handy  person  doing  the  same  thing  with  great  ease, 
you  will  see  how  it  is  a  service.  You  may  have  seen  a 
person  who  is  unable  to  do  something,  and  have  watched 
him  while  he  is  being  taught  the  way  to  do  it  by  some 
one  who  is  experienced.  Then  as  you  see  the  person 
who  is  taught  brighten  up  when  he  learns  the  way,  you 
will  understand  how  useful  knowledge  is. 

Of  course,  if  a  few  persons  know  how  to  do  a  thing 
well,  they  will  have  a  great  advantage  over  their  neigh- 
bors. That  which  to  others  is  a  toil,  is  to  them  a 
pleasure.  See  how  painful  is  the  eifort  by.  which  a  boy 
who  is  beginning  to  learn  reading,  cons  over  his  task, 
and  spells  the  words.  Now  look  at  the  same  boy  Avhen 
he  has  got  a  mastery  over  that  which  he  has  been  en- 
gaged on,  and  compare  his  looks  as  he  reads  a  pleasant 
book,  with  the  same  looks,  if  you  can  remember  them, 
when  he  began  to  read.  In  this  way  you  can  understand 
the  advantage  which  a  really  able  man,  who  has  thor- 
oughly cultivated  his  mind,  has  over  those  who  do  not 
possess  his  gifts. 

But  suppose  everybody  were  well  taught,  would 
any  one  have  an  advantage  then  ?  It  is  hard  to  conceive 
everybody  equally  Avell  tauglit,  and  therefore  a  imiform 
level  in  all  minds.  Such  a  thing  Avill  never  happen  if  we 
can  judge  of  the  future  by  the  past;  but  it  is  easy  to 
imaarine  the  case  of  a  whole  nation  which  is  well  edu- 
cated ;  there  are  such  nations. 

Now  such  a  nation  will  be  vastly  better  off  thaii 
other  nations  which  are  not  so  benefited.  But  it  might, 
indeed,  it  would  be  the  case,  that  the  education  not  giv- 
ing them  a  special  advantage  at  home,  not  one  of  tlicra 


88  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

would  have  any  advantage  over  his  fellovr-conntrymen. 
Is  their  education,  then,  of  no  value  ?  It  is  of  the  great- 
est. It  has  made  them  handy ;  it  has  made  them  work 
easier.  If  they  have  used  what  they  possess  wisely, 
they  can  do  the  same  things  with  half  the  toil  and  labor 
that  they  must  have  given  before  they  were  trained.  A 
skilled  person  goes  straight  to  the  mark,  while  an  un- 
skilled one  wastes  time  in  finding  out  what  the  mark  is, 
and  what  is  the  way  to  it. 


LESSON  XIX. 

S?ECIAL    LEARNING. 

There  is  a  certain  kind  of  education  which  every- 
body ought  to  have ;  but  it  is  not  very  easy  to  decide 
what  its  extent  should  be.  We  know  where  it  begins, 
but  we  cannot  say  where  it  should  end.  All  allow  that 
everybody  should  be  taught  to  read,  to  write,  and  to 
reckon ;  and  that  he  should  do  these  things  easily.  The 
fact  is,  these  three  kinds  of  learning  must  be  got  before 
any  other  kind  of  learning  can  be.  After  they  are  ob- 
tained, they  are  used  for  getting  further  knowledge ;  but 
where  or  when  this  knowledge  should  stop  is  not  easy  to 
say.  In  a  sense,  whenever  these  three  needful  portions 
of  knowledge  are  possessed,  people  who  use  their  pow- 
ers never  cease  learning. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  there  are  many 
kinds  of  knowledge,  all  of  which  no  man  can  get,  for 
the  reason  that  no  man's  life  is  long  enough  to  collect 
them.  The  most  learned  man  in  the  world  knows  only 
a  portion — probably  a  very  small  portion — of  that  which 
can  be  known.  Besides,  the  rule  which  I  laid  down 
before,  that  the  greatest  results  are  obtained  by  a  divis- 
ion of  employments,  holds  good  in  learning  as  it  does 
in  manual  industry.  The  sum  of  human  knowledge  is 
BO  vast,  that  to  know  any  one  branch  of  it  properly  re- 


go  SOCLA.L  ECONOMY. 

quires  constant  attention.  Thus  one  man  learns  law, 
another  physic;  one  man  studies  chemistry,  another 
mechanics,  another  geology,  and  so  on.  As  the  gath- 
ered knowledge  of  mankind  gets  to  be  greater,  the  study 
of  all  kinds  of  knowledge  is  more  and  more  divided  or 
distributed. 

Now,  when  that  which  people  know  is  saleable,  there 
is  no  need  that  anybody  should  interfere  in  order  that 
this  knowledge  should  be  acqiiired.  This  is  plainly  the 
case  in  what  may  be  called  the  common  callings  of  life. 
There  is  no  need  that  people  should  be  instructed  in 
different  kinds  of  industry  at  the  public  expense ;  if 
they  were,  they  who  obtain  this  knowledge  would  in  the 
end  be  none  the  better  for  bemg  taught,  since  as  I  have 
already  shown,  the  wages  of  every  calling  stand  in  close 
proportion  to  the  cost  at  which  the  laborer  has  been 
prepared  for  his  calling. 

There  are,  however,  as  I  have  shown,  certain  kinds 
of  knowledge  which  are  very  valuable,  but  which  are 
not  very  saleable.  The  most  serviceable  man  whom 
any  society  can  possess  is  a  really  great  statesman — i.e., 
a  man  who  can  deal  wisely  and  justly  with  all  interests, 
and  can  take  care  that  no  force  or  power  m  society  is 
able  to  oppress  or  wrong  any  other,  or  take  that  to  itself 
to  which  it  is  not  entitled.  If  the  service  which  such  a 
man  does  could  be  reckoned  at  its  true  worth,  there  is 
hardly  any  price  which  is  too  high  for  so  useful  and  so 
rare  a  service.  But  nobody  ever  thinks  of  paying  a  real 
statesman  for  his  services ;  perhaps  because  it  is  so  very 
rare  that  they  do  occur,  are  given,  and  are  accepted. 
Generally  a  statesman  is  paid  in  honor,  though  some- 
times he  does  not  get  that  before  it  is  too  late. 

Other  persons,  too,  engage  themselves  in  pursuits 


SPECIAL  LEARNING.  91 

•which  are  of  very  great  use  to  mankind ;  but  they  often 
do  not  find  their  services  saleable,  either  because  nobody 
sees  their  useftilness,  or  because  everybody  sees  the  use- 
folness,  and  everybody  is  able,  after  being  shown  the 
way,  to  do  what  these  people  have  ft)und  out.  It  is  very 
often  the  case  that  something  which  it  is  very  hard  to 
find  out  at  first,  is  very  easy  to  copy  afterwards.  A 
man  may  give  the  labor  of  half  a  life  to  that  which 
another  may  imitate  in  five  minutes.  The  very  greatest 
discoveries  are  often  so  very  simple  that  people  often 
wonder  why  they  were  not  found  out  long  before. 
Some  man  by  his  patience  and  shrewdness  has  put  them 
so  completely  into  the  hands  of  others,  that  they  can 
never  be  forgotten.  Take,  for  example,  the  arts  of 
printing  and  of  paper-making,  and  the  invention  of 
steam-power. 

Now  there  are  several  ways  in  which  these  persons 
may  be  paid.  The  State — that  is,  the  whole  people  of 
any  country,  acting  through  its  Government — may  give 
a  reward  to  the  inventor  for  the  benefit  he  has  conferred 
on  mankind.  Thus  a  sum  of  money  was  given  to  Jen- 
ner,  the  physician  who  discovered  vaccination.  This  per- 
son found  out  by  patient  and  diligent  inquiry  that  there 
was  a  simple  and  safe  means  of  preventmg  a  hideous 
and  dangerous  disease.  It  is  said  that  small-pox  is  a  dis- 
order which  man  originally  caught  from  an  animal — 
namely,  the  camel ;  and  it  was  fomid  that  when  the  same 
disease  occurred  in  another  animal,  the  cow,  they  who 
caught  it  from  the  cow  had  a  very  mild  or  slight  com- 
plaint, and  were  afterwards  safe. 

After  Jenner  found  this  out,  had  proved  the  truth  of 
his  discovery,  and  told  it  to  others,  there  was  nothing 
to  prevent  anybody  from  using  the  remedy.     Honest 


92  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

physicians  never  have  secrets,  always  looking  on  those 
who  pretend  to  medical  secrets  as  impostors,  or  as  they 
call  them,  quacks.  They  are,  most  probably,  in  the 
right,  when  they  hold  this  opinion.  So  of  course  Jen- 
ner  published  his  discovery.  In  order  to  reward  him 
for  his  services,  in  some  degree  at  least,  the  English  na- 
tion through  its  Parliament  voted  liim  a  sum  of  money. 
I  imagine  that  if  he  could  have  kept  it  a  secret,  he  might 
have  made  a  large  fortune,  such  as  is  made  by  many  who 
discover  something,  make  it  a  mystery,  and  are  praised 
afterwards  by  their'  admirers,  because  they  have  grown 
rich. 

Let  us  take  another  example.  Thirty  years  ago,  or 
rather  more,  a  person  who  was  employed  in  the  English 
Post  Office  thought  out  a  new  notion  about  the  carriage 
and  delivery  of  letters.  He  argued  that  the  carriage 
of  a  letter  was  a  small  business,  and  that  all  the  work 
lay  in  the  delivery  of  it.  Hence  he  suggested  that  there 
should  be  a  uniform  rate  of  charge  for  delivering  letters, 
because,  the  old  rule  that  letters  should  be  charged  ac- 
cording to  distance,  was  founded  on  a  mistake.  Noth- 
ing can  be  more  simple  and  more  clear.  It  is  so  plain 
a  principle  that  one  wonders  why  it  was  not  seen  and 
allowed  long  before  Rowland  Hill  found  it  out.  What 
the  benefit  was  to  the  people,  is  matter  of  knowledge  to 
those  who  are  old  enough  to  remember  the  old  system, 
and  how  they  who  were  separated  from  their  friends 
had  to  pay  a  penalty  for  the  right  of  sending  a  letter  to 
them. 

Now  in  this  case  Hill  could  not  keep  his  discovery  a 
prgfitable  secret,  since  by  a  kind  of  chance  wisdom, 
letters  in  this  and  in  all  civilized  countries  besides, 
are  carried  by  the  Government.     So  he  made  his  plan 


SPECIAL  LE ARISING.  93 

known.  It  was  not  received  with  gi'eat  favor,  and  for 
some  time  after  it  had  been  received  and  acted  on,  Hill 
was  made  to  feel  that  it  is  not  always  well  to  be  wiser 
than  other  people.  At  last,  however,  it  was  allowed 
that  the  plan  was  really  a  good  one.  There  was  only 
one  way  in  which  the  inventor  could  be  rewarded,  and 
this  was  by  a  gift  of  public  money.  It  is  very  seldom  that 
pubUc  money  has  been  so  well  bestowed. 


LESSON  XX. 

Uq-VENTIONS   AXD   BOOKS. 

I  HAVE  told  you  of  one  way  in  which  a  great  public 
service,  when  it  cannot  be  otherwise  paid  for,  is  some- 
times rewarded.  There  is  another  and  a  far  commoner 
way.  The  ingenuity  of  man  has  been  directed  into  the 
finding  out  the  art  of  making  all  sorts  of  things  prop- 
erty— that  is,  of  putting  a  limit  on  the  use  which  may  be 
made  of  such  things.  Sometimes  this  artificial  limita- 
tion has  taken  the  form  of  compelling  the  public  at  large 
to  buy  nothing  except  what  has  been  made  in  the  coun- 
try, or  at  least  of  putthig  an  extra  price  in  the  shape  of 
a  tax  on  that  which  has  been  produced  in  other  coun- 
tries. In  the  history  of  this  country,  a  man  or  a  com- 
pany of  men  has  sometimes  conquered  a  territory,  and 
has  been  permitted  in  return  to  have  the  sole  right  of 
selling  certain  articles  in  or  from  that  country.  Some- 
times none  but  those  who  have  gone  through  a  certain 
course  of  education,  and  have  been  duly  certified  as 
knowing  a  particular  art  or  craft,  are  allowed  to  practise 
the  art.  Sometimes  persons  have  this  privilege  because 
they  have  been  for  a  certain  number  of  times  in  a  dining- 
room.  Sometimes  the  person  who  has  written  a  book, 
or  invented  some  useful  thing,  is  permitted,  on  cona  .aon 


IN^*ENTIOXS   AND   BOOKS.  95 

of  his  publishing  the  book,  or  giving  an  exact  descrip- 
tion of  what  he  has  invented,  and  how  he  makes  it,  to 
have  the  sole  rig-ht  of  selling  book  or  invention  for  a 
fixed  niunber  of  years. 

There  is  a  defence  given  for  these  privileges.  It  is 
said — and  perhaps  in  past  times  it  might  have  been  said 
with  truth — that  unless  persons  had  this  protection  or 
assistance  for  special  industry  or  intelligence,  the  world 
would  never  have  made  any  progress  whatever  in  art  or 
science.  Be  this  true  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  whenever 
any  check  is  put  on  any  man,  so  that  he  cannot  exercise 
his  own  judgment  or  choice  in  Avhat  he  wants  to  make, 
to  sell,  or  to  buy,  reason  should  be  shown  why  the  re- 
straint is  good  for  the  people  at  large. 

In  this  lesson  I  shall  speak  of  the  last  two  kinds  of 
property  created  by  law.  There  are  the  right  which 
an  author  has  to  print  his  own  books,  and  the  right  which 
an  inventor  has  to  the  profit  of  his  own  inventions. 
Both  these  rights  are  secured  by  law — could  not  indeed 
be  secured  in  any  other  way ;  for  it  is  plain  that  when 
an  author  prints  a  book,  there  is  nothing  in  nature  to 
prevent  another  person  from  jjrinting  it  anew ;  or  when 
a  machinist  sells  a  machine,  or  other  invention,  from 
another  person  copying  what  he  has  made.  Now  it  is 
manifest  that  in  either  case  the  second  person,  supposing 
that  he  is  able  to  sell  the  book  or  the  machine  as  easily 
and  as  readily  as  the  author  and  inventor  can,  would  be 
using  the  labor  of  either  to  his  own  advantage,  and  at 
no  cost  to  himself  This  seems  like  robbery,  for  rob- 
bery is  getting  property  for  which  a  man  has  never 
worked,  and  to  which  he  has  no  right. 

If  it  can  be  sho^vn  that  the  right  to  exercise  one's 
own  judgment  in  the  choice  of  one's  own  industry  may 


96  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

lead  a  man  into  taking  another  person's  work  without 
paying  for  it,  and  therefore  may  seriously  hinder  very 
valuable  labor,  the  case  in  favor  of  giving  an  author  or 
an  inventor  a  legal  property  in  his  book,  or  in  his  inven- 
tion, is  quite  made  out.  There  are,  indeed,  some  persons 
who  ai'gue  that  an  author  is  very  considerably  protected 
by  the  fact  of  his  being  the  first  to  sell  the  woi'k  he 
writes,  and  that  he  would  be  perfectly  protected  if  no- 
body were  able  to  reprint  his  book  with  his  name.  So 
it  is  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  no  invention  is  ever  the 
produce  of  one  man's  mind,  but  of  several,  and  that  the 
legal  right  of  sole  sale  only  confers  on  one  person  a  prop- 
erty which  is  just  as  much  the  right  of  several  other 
persons. 

There  is  a  difference  between  a  book  and  an  inven- 
tion. The  author  of  a  book  uses  a  material  which  is 
common  to  any  man — namely,  the  words  of  a  particulat 
language,  and  sometimes  facts  which  are  every  one's 
right ;  as,  for  example,  when  he  compiles  a  history.  But 
the  rest  of  the  labor  is  wholly  his  own.  He  chooses  the 
words  he  uses,  and  he  originates,  or  supplies  from  his 
own  mind,  the  arguments  or  comments  which  he  con- 
structs or  makes.  Sometimes  he  has  only  taken  the 
language,  as  when  he  is  a  poet.  Now  it  will  be  clear 
that  no  two  persons  could  by  any  probability  have  thought 
of  using  the  same  words  in  the  same  way.  If,  for  ex- 
ample, a  man  were  to  publish  a  drama  word  for  word 
the  same  as  one  of  Shakspeare's,  and  say  that  he  never 
read  Shakspeare's  works,  but  that  by  some  strange 
chance  he  had  thought  exactly  and  written  exactly  as 
Shakspeare  did,  we  should  know  what  to  think  of  him. 
Nay,  if  there  were  sentences  in  the  drama  resembling 
those  of  Shakspeare,  we  should  not  believe  him  if  he 


ESrVENTIONS  AND   BOOKS.  97 

asserted  ever  so  stronfjly  that  thpy  were  his  own  com 
position. 

But  it  is  quite  possible  for  two  persons,  or  more  than 
two,  to  have  made  at  the  same  time  the  same  invention. 
There  are  those  who  say  that  there  never  has  been  any 
great  discovery  made  in  art  or  science,  except  by  more 
than  one  person  ;  that  the  difference  between  a  book  and 
an  invention  is  total  on  this  point.  It  is  also  said  that 
while  it  is  very  easy  to  reprint  a  book,  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  copy  a  machine,  and  that  therefore  there  is  more  necil 
of  protection  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter. 

However  this  may  be,  the  law  creates  a  right  of  prop- 
erty in  books  and  inventions,  calling  the  one  copyright, 
the  other  patent-right.  The  first  of  these  belongs  to  the 
book  directly  it  is  published,  and  after  the  fulfilment  of  cer- 
tain conditions.  The  latter  belongs  to  an  invention  only 
after  a  legal  form  is  gone  through,  which  is  attended 
with  no  little  expense.  In  general,  the  duration  of  the 
property  in  an  invention  is  much  shorter  than  that  in  a 
book;  and  it  may  be  added  the  right  which  the  law 
creates  is  generally  more  valuable  in  the  foi'mer  than  in 
the  latter  case. 

The  law  also  ci*eates  a  property  in  a  name  or  a  sym- 
bol. If,  for  example,  an  author  or  a  publisher  starts  a 
magazine  or  newspaper  imder  a  certain  name,  the  law 
will  not  allow  another  person  to  take  that  name.  In  the 
same  way  the  law  will  not  permit  the  imitation  of  a 
trade  maik.  Xow  the  reason  for  this  is  twofold.  In 
part,  the  adoption  of  a*  name  or  symbol  which  another 
person  has  made  his  own,  and  which  he  will  of  course 
take  care  to  make  distinctive  or  peculiar,  is  an  invasion 
of  that  which  may  be  called  his  property.  In  part,  it  is 
a  fraud  which  nearly  resembles  forgerv — that  is.  the  irai- 
5 


98  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

latiou  of  a  person's  signature  ©n  an  order  to  pay  money 
The  offence  is  not  so  serious,  because  a  successful  for- 
gery is  a  total  fraud,  against  which  no  pains  would  se- 
cure any  one  5  while  an  imitation  of  a  trade  mark  mere- 
ly substitutes  one  man's  goods  for  another's. 


LESSON  XXI. 

EESTEAINTS  OJST  BUYING  AND  SELLING. 

I  MENTIONED  that  there  were  various  ways  in  which 
the  Government  or  the  laws  of  a  country  give  special 
assistance  to  certain  industries,  and  that  these  privileges 
are  accorded  on  the  j^lea  that  the  public  good  is  served 
by  that  restraint  on  the  freedom  of  others  which  the 
grant  of  a  privilege  always  implies.  It  is  probably  for 
the  good  of  the  people  at  large  that  the  right  of  prac- 
ticing medicine  is  confined  to  those  who  have  obtained 
a  certificate  of  proficiency,  and  that  the  rule  which  holds 
good  in  physic  might  be  extended  with  advantage  to 
other  callings.  At  present,  however,  these  restrictions 
on  freedom  of  industry  are  rather  lessened  than  increased 
in  number. 

A  hundred  years  ago,  there  was  hardly  a  single  call- 
ing, with  the  exception  of  farm  labor,  which  any  person 
could  enter  on  without  having  been  an  apprentice,  and 
sometimes  Avithout  becoming  the  member  of  a  trade 
com])anj.  There  are  parts  of  Europe — as  for  example 
in  Southwestern  Grcrmany — wiiere  such  a  rule  holds  to 
the  present  day.  It  appears  that  the  custom  is  not  a 
good  one,  and  that  such  privileged  labor  is  apt  to  become 
very  incompetent,  and  lacking  in  enterprise. 

Similarly,  there  is  no  country  in  the  world,  except 


100  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

England,  where  other  people  have  the  right  of  buying 
and  selling  to  the  best  advantage,  that  is,  without  any- 
artificial  restrictions.  If  an  Englishman  wishes  to  buy 
a  coat  or  a  pair  of  shoes,  he  has  the  right  to  purchase 
either  a  London,  or  a  country,  or  a  foreign  article  at  his 
pleasure.  In  other  countries,  however,  it  is  the  general 
rule  that  either  the  people  are  wholly  forbidden  to  buy 
from  foreigners,  or  are  obliged  to  pay  a  heavy  tax  if 
they  still  have  so  good  an  opinion  of  foreign  goods  that 
they  will  have  them,  even  at  the  increased  price.* 

Now  it  is  quite  clear  that  when  such  a  hindrance  is 
put  on  the  person  who  wishes  to  supply  himself  with 
what  he  wants,  a  loss  is  put  on  him.     If  the  customer's 

*  It  must  be  said,  however,  in  regard  to  this  view,  that  a  good 
many  people  in  America  and  Europe,  believe  that  it  is  of  consid- 
erable advantage  to  the  community  to  oblige  buyers  to  get  their 
goods  from  their  immediate  neighbors,  rather  than  from  tlie  for- 
eign manufacturers. 

They  claim  that  while  the  buyer  for  the  moment  pays  more 
for  the  goods,  the  community  to  which  he  belongs  is  benefited  by 
having  the  articles  manufactured  and  used  at  home,  and  that  the 
general  welfare  must  be  considered,  rather  than  that  of  the  indi- 
vidual buyer. 

The  question  is  a  very  complicated  one,  and  cannot  be  dis- 
cussed here.  Those  who  believe  that  buying  and  selling  should  be 
unrestricted  by  the  Government,  are  called  Free-traders.  Those 
who  claim  that  foreign  goods  should  be  taxed,  so  that  as  many  ar- 
ticles as  possible  should  be  manufactured  at  home,  are  called  Pro- 
tectionists. The  writer  of  this  book  is  a  Free-trader.  At  the 
present  date,  1872,  England  is  the  only  country  whose  Government 
has  adopted  in  full  what  are  called  Free-trade  principles.  Holland 
and  Belgium  have  adopted  them  in  part,  while  France,  Germany, 
Spain,  Italy,  and  the  United  States  have,  by  placing  greater  or 
smaller  taxes  upon  foreign  goods,  followed  the  theories  of  the  pro- 
tectionists.— ^Editor. 


IlESTRAINTS  ON  BUYING  AND  SELLING.     101 

own  country  could  sell  him  articles  as  cheap  and  good  as 
the  foreign  coimtry  can,  there  would  be  no  need  to  put 
the  restraint  on  him,  and  the  restraint  would  not  be  put 
on  him.  No  one  in  France  Avould  think  of  putting  a 
tax  on  English  wine,  because  England  makes  no  wine 
which  is  as  good  as  that  which  France  makes.  No 
Chinese  would  think  of  taxing  English  tea,  no  Austra- 
lian of  taxing  English  meat.  Any  restramt,  then,  which 
is  put  on  a  customer  is  a  certain  loss. 

Again,  it  is  clear  that  when  the  tax  is  first  put  on,  it 
is  a  gain  to  the  man  who  makes  or,  at  least,  to  the  man 
who  has  a  stock  of  the  articles.  If  any  man  could  com- 
pel everybody  in  his  neighborhood  to  deal  at  his  shop, 
he  would  make  a  large  profit,  as  long  as  there  was  no 
other  shop  to  compete  with  him.  For  a  time  at  least, 
then,  this  restraint  is  a*  gain  to  the  dealer.  But  Avhen 
people  find  out  that  great  profits  can  be  made  out  of  any 
trade,  they  are  eager  to  engage  in  it,  and  thus  it  con- 
stantly happens  that  the  poorest  and  the  least  prosper- 
ous business  is  that  which  the  law  favors,  by  compelling 
the  people  to  trade  only  in  a  narrow  market. 

The  loss,  then,  always  falls  on  the  buyer,  and  after  a 
time  the  2;ain  does  not  remain  with  the  seller.  Some 
one  always  loses,  and  in  the  end  no  person  gains.  Why, 
then,  should  such  a  system  be  undertaken  at  all,  and  why 
should  it  be  carried  on,  when  its  effects  are  found  out  ? 

Of  course  I  do  not  take  into  account  such  cases  as 
those  in  which  men,  having  influence  in  a  Government, 
knowingly  put  a  loss  on  others  in  order  to  get  a  gain 
tliemselves.  Such  things  have  happened,  and  Avill  hap- 
pen again,  as  long  as  strong  men  are  dishonest,  and  other 
men  are  weak  or  ignorant.  Except  for  the  fact  that 
such  acts  have  the  form  of  law  on  their  side,  they  are 


UNIVERSITY  OF  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


102  SOCLiL  ECONOMY. 

just  as  much  robbery  as  though  a  man  picked  one's 
pocket  in  the  street,  or  stole  one's  money  from  one's 
house. 

But  these  laws  or  customs  are  defended  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  desirable  to  have  all  kinds  of  industry 
planted  in  a  country.  Now  if  the  industry  is  necessary 
to  the  defence  of  a  country,  there  is  great  force  in  this 
reasoning.  But  then,  we  may  depend  on  it  that,  unless 
the  Government  is  very  much  to  blame,  they  will  be  un- 
dertaken. If  they  are  not,  it  is  just  as  absurd  for  the 
law  to  order  the  work  of  the  nation,  as  it  is  for  it  to  or- 
der the  work  of  a  particular  person,  or  as  it  Avould  be 
for  any  person  to  try  to  do  every  thing  for  himself — grow 
his  own  food,  make  his  own  clothes,  build  his  o'mi  house, 
and  fashion  his  own  tools — because  he  does  not  like  to 
depend  on  others  for  the  better  and  cheaper  supply  of 
these  articles.  In  short,  it  is  to  prefer  savage  to  civil- 
ized life. 

An  industry  which  will  pay  on  its  own  merits  always 
springs  up  in  a  country  as  soon  as  the  advantage  of  fol- 
lowing it  is  found  out,  and  this  is  quite  soon  enough. 
Further,  any  country  has  a  great  advantage  over  every 
other  country  in  two  ways.  It  can  supply  the  same 
goods  without  the  cost  of  carriage.  The  home  laborer 
knows  better  than  the  foreigner  does  how  much  of  the 
article,  and  what  quality  of  the  article,  is  wanted.  Now 
to  take  to  the  industry  before  it  can  be  supplied  cheaper 
and  better  at  home  than  it  can  be  from  abroad,  is  to 
Avaste  one's  industry. 

When,  however,  the  tax  is  laid  on,  and  the  industry 
has  been  forced  to  grow,  just  as  tropical  plants  may  be 
made  to  grow  in  an  English  hothouse,  it  may  be  the  case 
that  an  alteration  in  the  law  will  do  mischief  to  those 


RESTEAmTS   ON  BUYING  AND   SELLING.      103 

who  have  been  induced  to  trust  to  the  law.  It  is  a  very 
hard  thing  to  get  rid  of  a  law  which  creates  such  inter- 
ests as  would  not  naturally  exist.  It  is  like  stripping 
oil*  the  roof  of  a  hothouse,  and  leaving  the  plants  within 
it  to  struggle,  if  they  can,  against  a  climate  to  which 
they  are  unsuited.  Fortunately,  indeed,  man  is  more 
able  to  accommodate  himself  to  hardship  than  a  hothouse 
plant  is  to  frost ;  and  moreover,  no  one  industry  is  so 
wholly  unlike  others  as  to  render  it  impossible  for  the 
Avorkman  to  betake  himself  to  another  calling  when  the 
assistance  the  law  gave  his  old  labor  is  withdrawn.. 

Two  great  countries  have  latterly  passed  through 
terrible  wars.  In  the  one,  the  nation  was  victorious — if, 
indeed,  there  can  be  said  to  be  a  victory  in  a  civil  war. 
In  the  other,  it  Avas  vanquished.  Both  incurred  great 
debts,  Avhich  it  is  necessary  to  pay.  The  one,  m  order 
to  find  money,  put  heavy  taxes  on  foreign  goods,  believ- 
ing that  it  Avould  greatly  assist  home  industry.  The 
hope  has  been  disappointed,  for  the  home  industry  has 
been  far  from  flourishing,  and  the  foreign  trade  of  the 
country,  except  in  those  articles  which  are  not  assisted, 
has  been  ruined. 

The  other  country  has  incurred  a  debt  almost  as  vast 
as  that  of  the  United  States.  It  has  borrowed  money  in 
order  to  pay  the  debt,  and  has  therefore  to  pay  interest 
on  its  loans.  Its  statesmen,  though  they  have  the  exam- 
jile  of  the  American  Republic  before  them,  seem  bent 
on  following  a  disastrous  example.  The  consequence  of 
such  a  plan  is  as  certain  as  that  of  any  natural  law  can 
be.  It  will  ruin  foreign  trade.  Mill  inflict  great  losses 
on  the  people,  and  in  the  end  be  a  gain  to  no  one. 


LESSON  xxn. 

PUBLIC     CHARITIES. 

There  is  yet  another  kind  of  industry  to  which 
society  or  the  State  grants  assistance,  or  to  which  it  al- 
lows the  grant  of  assistance  on  the  part  of  j^rivate  bene- 
factors. I  have  already  told  you  of  the  aid  which  the 
State  gives  directly  to  those  who  are  able  to  do  a  public 
service  which  is  of  great  value,  but  which  is  not  saleable. 
I  am  now  about  to  tell  you  of  that  aid  which  the  State 
allows  other  people  to  give,  under  the  name  of  endow- 
ments or  public  charities.  These  endowments  are  por- 
tions of  property,  the  income  of  which  is  devoted  for- 
ever to  certain  public  purposes. 

Now  there  are  two  objections  which  can  always  be 
made  to  such  gifts,  One  is,  that  it  is  not  expedient  to 
allow  any  kind  of  proj)erty  to  be  taken  always  out  of 
the  mai'ket,  jjarticularly  if  such  property  is  one  which  is 
by  nature  limited  in  quantity,  such  as  land.  There  al- 
ways should  be  strong  proof  shown  that  the  end  of  such 
permission  is  very  good,  before  any  person  is  allowed, 
however  excellent  his  motives  may  be,  to  bind  all  men 
afterwards  not  to  bring  a  particular  quantity  of  property 
into  the  market.  Any  intei-ference  with  selling  or  buy- 
ing needs  a  defence.  But  if  a  charity  is  to  be  perpetual, 
it  is  necessary  to  grant  this  restraint  over  some  kinds  of 
property. 


PUBLIC  CHARITIES.  105 

Kext,  the  gift  of  these  charities,  in  case  they  are 
bestowed  on  those  Avho  earn  money  by  teaching,  or  get 
money  for  learninii  that  which  they  will  turn  to  iirofit- 
able  account  afterwards,  always  lowers  the  earnings  of 
others  who  do  not  share  in  the  charity.  The  same  fact 
holds  good  in  the  case  of  ordinary  wages,  if  any  public 
charity  gives  aid  to  ordinary  laborers. 

The  reason  is  the  following :  The  payment  of  labor 
depends  generally  on  the  cost  of  rendering  the  laborer 
fit  for  his  employment,  and  on  the  number  of  persons 
who  seek  for  the  employment.  Now  if  some  aid  is 
given  to  a  particular  employment,  the  advantage  of  fol- 
lowing it  is  greater  than  it  is  in  others,  and  more  per- 
sons press  mto  it.  If,  moreover,  the  endowment  is  of 
such  a  character  as  to  contain  such  prizes  as  give  a  show 
of  chance  or  luck  to  it,  the  employment  to  which  it  is 
tied  is  always  more  attractive  than  one  the  rewards  of 
which  are  merely  uniform  or  every-day. 

Now  just  this  sort  of  result  happens  in  the  case  of 
those  endowments  which  are  given  in  aid  of  teachers. 
Those  who  get  them  are  esteemed  fortimate,  however 
deserving  they  may  be.  Hence  there  are  many  persons 
willing  to  undertake  the  calling  of  a  teacher.  Still  the 
income  of  the  charity  is  to  be  reckoned  up  with  all  the 
wages  which  teachers  earn.  But  the  recompense  is  very 
unequally  divided.  Some  have  their  earnings  increased 
by  the  aid  of  the  charity ;  but  others  have  their  earnings 
diminished — that  is,  do  not  get  so  much  as  they  avouM 
have  got  had  there  been  no  charity  at  all.  If  no  person 
got  any  thing  from  the  charity,  the  earnings  of  all  who 
are  not  assisted  would  rise,  and  the  earnings  of  all  would 
be  equal  in  the  case  of  all  who  have  the  same  power  and 
skill. 

5* 


106  SOCIAL  ECOisroMir. 

So  it  is  with  charities  given  in  aid  of  other  wages 
What  a  man  eai'ns  must  be  sufficient  to  maintain  him  in 
heahh,  to  enable  him  to  bring  up  children,  to  provide 
against  tlie  risk  of  sickness,  and  the  certainty  of  old  age. 
If  the  law  informs  him  that  in  case  he  is  unable  to  do 
so,  it  will  maintain  his  children,  will  keep  and  cure  him 
when  sick,  and  provide  him  a  home  in  old  age,  his 
wages  will  fall,  even  though  he  never  takes  advantage 
of  the  offer.  From  one  point  of  view,  poor-rates  are 
really  paid  by  those  laborers  who  come  within  the  class 
to  whom  poor-law  relief  is  a  help,  because  their  wages 
are  lowered  by  the  pledge  of  assistance. 

If,  again,  children  are  educated  at  the  cost  of  a  charity, 
the  other  rule  which  I  have  so  often  laid  down  comes 
into  operation.  The  cost  of  rearing  and  teaching  labor 
is  lowered,  and  with  it  the  wages  are  lowered.  It  is 
true  that  the  person  who  has  gained  the  benefit  of  the 
charity  gets  far  more  than  he  would  get,  if  no  persons 
but  such  as  are  reared  by  the  charity  entered  into  the 
employment.  But  those  who  are  reared  at  private  cost 
got  less  than  they  would  if  the  whole  of  those  who  enter 
the  employment  were  reared  at  private  cost.  You  will, 
of  course,  remember  that  when  I  am  speaking  in  this 
manner,  I  am  thinking  of  such  knowledge  or  skill  as 
commonly  gets  employment  in  consideration  of  its  use- 
fulness. 

If,  therefore,  the  consequence  of  a  charity  is  that  it 
interferes  to  some  extent  with  the  market  of  property, 
if  it  tends  to  lower  wages,  and  is  certain  to  make  the 
payment  of  those  who  are  not  assisted  lower  than  would 
have  been  the  case  had  no  assistance  been  given  to  any 
one,  what  good  are  these  charities  at  all  ? 

There  was,  no  doubt,  a  time  in  which  the  value  of 


PUBLIC  CHARITIES.  107 

education  and  learning  was  scarcely  admitted  at  all. 
Had  they  been  left  to  those  who  could  afford  to  pursue 
them  for  their  own  sake,  they  would,  perhaps,  have 
never  been  cultivated  at  all,  or  probably  would  have 
been  cultivated  A^ery  rarely.  In  those  days,  an  endow- 
ment in  aid  of  learning  was  a  real  public  good;  it 
afforded  leisure  and  the  means  of  life  to  those  who 
busied' themselves  with  something  which  was  very  useful, 
but  for  which  there  was  no  market.  Whatever  may  be 
said  for  these  charities  now,  there  was  a  time  in  which 
they  had  a  great  value. 

But  at  all  times  there  are  special  branches  of  learning 
which  have  a  great  value,  and  yet  are  not  marketable. 
The  endowment  which  is  2;iven  to  such  kinds  of  learning: 
is  now  doing  that  which,  in  old  days,  these  charities  did 
for  every  kind  of  learning.  You  can  see  what  the 
benefit  to  society  would  be  if  a  man  could  discover  some 
new  force  or  process  Avhith  would  greatly  savo  human 
labor.  If  it  were  possible  to  find  a  man  who  could  give 
labor  to  such  a  discovery,  it  would  be  money  well  laid 
out  to  give  him  the  leisure  for  the  purpose. 

Much  more  can  be  said  for  those  endowments  which 
are  ccivcn  in  aid  of  those  who  are  taucrht.  It  is  more 
easy  to  show  how  riches  can  be  and  are  gathered,  than 
to  show  how  they  can  be  fairly  divided  or  distributed. 
Now  it  very  often  liappens  that  young  people  have 
great  gifts  of  natural  power,  great  force  of  character, 
and  great  willingness  to  learn.  Poverty,  however,  and 
the  lack  of  means  by  which  they  can  be  trained  till  such 
time  as  their  powers  can  be  made  mature,  are  great. 
liind ranees  to  the  progress  of  those  whom  everybody 
would  wish  to  see  prospering. 

Now  these  charitiesf  are   or  could  be  made  a  \  cry 


108  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

powerful  means  for  selecting  and  training  such  young 
people.  A  good  system  of  education,  and  a  wise  man- 
ao-ement  of  these  charities,  would  make  the  road  easy 
to  many  a  dihgent  child ;  nor  will  a  system  of  educa- 
tion be  perfect  till  such  a  scheme  is  worked  out.  Men 
of  science  do  not  grudge  the  spending  of  money  on 
searching  into  all  forms  of  Nature.  But  no  discovery 
is  more  pleasing  than  that  of  good  gifts  of  abUity  and 
character  in  children,  and  no  money  is  better  laid  out 
than  in  forwarding  such  deserving  persons. 


>i»'. 


LESSON  xm. 

THE  WOEK   OF   GOVERXMEN'T. 

B  r  this  time,  I  suppose,  my  readers  will  have  foimd 
out  that  it  is  an  error  to  imagine  that  work  can  be  got 
■without  paying  for  it.  There  are,  no  doubt,  some  great 
services  which  are  done  to  mankind,  but  for  which  no 
wages  are  ever  paid.  There  are  some  persons,  again, 
who  devote  themselves  to  works  of  charity  and  well- 
doing, who  neither  exj^ect  reward  nor  would  accept  it 
if  it  were  offered  them  ;  and  there  are,  moreover,  many 
ways  in  which  persons  may  be  paid  for  their  services, 
apart  from  the  common  mode  in  which  men  are  re- 
warded for  Avork.  But  the  rule  holds  good,  that  in  some 
way  or  another  most  of  those  who  work  earn  wages. 

Now  some  of  the  most  important  work  which  can  be 
done  is  performed  by  the  Government  of  a  country.  It 
undertakes  the  defence  of  the  whole  people,  either  by 
police  and  courts  of  justice  against  those  who  break  the 
peace  or  commit  frauds  at  home,  or  by  an  army  and  navy 
against  the  passion  of  conquest  in  which  States  are 
sometimes  apt  to  indulge.  It  controls  education,  gives 
relief  to  the  destitute,  and  sits  in  judgment  upon  cases 
where  people  are  likely  to  have  a  mistaken  vicAV  of  their 
own  interests.  Whether  it  always  does  what  is  best  is 
a  question ;  but  it  always  does  that  which  those  who 
have  the  gi*eatest  power  and  influence  think  is  best. 


110  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

Again,  it  sometimes  undertakes  the  management  of 
a  kind  'of  work  itself.  Thus  it  always  regulates  the 
coins  of  the  country,  and  frequently  takes  ujDon  itself 
the  business  of  issuing  those  pieces  of  paper  which,  as  I 
mentioned  in  a  former  lesson,  can,  imder  certain  cir- 
cumstances and  under  certain  rules,  be  made  to  act  as 
money.  So,  again,  in  every  civilized  country,  the  Gov- 
ernment undertakes  the  collection  and  distribution  of 
letters.  In  many  countries  it  does  the  same  thing  by 
the  conveyance  of  persons  and  goods,  for  it  takes  rail- 
ways in  hand.  Sometimes,  as  in  England,  it  establishes 
bajnks  for  the  poor.  At  times  it  lends  money  to  per- 
sons who  wish  to  improve  property,  or  even  to  acquire 
property. 

Now  it  is  very  easy  to  see  why  a  Government  undei*- 
takes  some  of  these  duties.  We  have  already  found 
out  that  human  labor  is  always  best  bestowed  when  per- 
sons occupy  themselves  with  some  one  business,  and  tliat 
to  try  a  dozen  things,  unless  under  necessity,  is  to  do 
the  whole  dozen  ill.  If,  therefore,  it  would  be  a  waste 
and  an  inconvenience  for  a  man  to  undertake  the  defence 
of  his  own  home,  property,  and  person  against  domestic 
and  foreign  enemies,  it  is  expedient  to  commit  this  office 
to  some  one  else.  But  to  whom  could  it  be  committed 
except  to  a  Government  which  has  the  power  to  compel 
the  strictest  discipline,  and  if  it  be  so  disj^osed,  can  do 
the  work  in  the  best  and  the  cheapest  manner  ? 

In  short,  a  whole  society  may  be  compared  to  a  vast 
factory,  eveiy  one  of  the  workmen  in  which  is  occupied 
in  some  industry  for  the  general  good.  But  it  is  neces- 
sary that  over  the  whole  of  this  huge  partnership  some 
management  should  be  established,  the  officers  of  which 
should  see  that  each  man  is  allowed  to  do  his  work  with 


THE   WORK   OF   GOVERNMENT.  HI 

the  least  possible  hindrance  and  loss,  that  the  whole  of 
those  who  exercise  their  industry,  should  do  so  with  the 
greatest  possible  safety ;  and  that  each  person  should  feel 
that  right  will  be  done  him,  in  case  he  thinks  that  wrong 
has  been  put  upon  him.  The  managers  of  this  great 
partnership  engage  to  maintain  peace  and  order  in  the 
interests  of  all,  and  to  check  and  control  all  whose  con- 
duct would  throw  the  safe  and  constant  working  of  the 
partnership  out  of  gear. 

It  is  not  easy  to  say  when  a  Government  should  take 
upon  itself  to  hire  laborers  in  order  to  perform  indus- 
tries which  priA'ate  persons  or  private  partnerships  can 
undertake.  Three  causes,  however,  may  induce  this 
kind  of  action.  A  Government  may  hire  labor,  and 
manufacture  or  perform  a  public  service,  either  because 
it  cannot  trust  ordmary  traders ;  or  because  the  work 
can  be  done  at  a  cheaper  rate  by  Government  than  it  can 
by  private  enterprise ;  or  because  the  necessary  spirit  of 
enterprise  is  wanting. 

Unluckily,  honesty  bears  a  price.  Peoj^le  are  obliged 
to  pay  for  that  which  only  exists  in  limited  quantity,  and 
which  it  is  at  the  same  time  very  necessary  to  get.  Now 
the  habits  of  some  persons,  owing  to  the  negligence  of 
law,  are  so  dishonest,  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
you  can  trust  their  word  at  all  when  they  pretend  to  sell 
genuine  goods.  Frauds  and  adulterations  are  part  of 
the  stock-in-trade  of  some  men.  But  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  that  a  Government  may  be  put  to  serious  incon- 
venience, and  a  nation  to  great  danger  by  the  roguery 
of  such  tradesmen.  Suppose  this  nation  were  forced  to 
go  to  war,  and  found  that  the  powder  which  it  had 
bought  was  bad,  because  the  manufacturer  had  cheated 
the  nation,  or  that  the  preserved  meat  was  unwholesome, 


112  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

or  the  bread  made  of  bad  flour,  tlie  country  might  be 
brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin  Cases  of  this  kind  have 
often  happened,  and  in  view  of  this  danger,  it  may  be. 
and  it  has  often  been,  necessary  for  the  Government  to 
do  this  kind  of  work  for  itself 

In  the  second  place,  a  Government  dealing  with  a 
public  service  on  the  largest  possible  scale,  may  do  the 
work  more  cheaply  and  efiectually  than  any  private  com- 
pany can.  A  trade  partnership  could  undertake  the 
business  of  the  Post  Office,  but  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  it  would  distribute  letters  with  such  cheapness, 
accuracy,  and  disj^atch,  as  the  Government  does. 

In  the  third  place,  the  spirit  of  enterprise  may  be 
weak  in  a  society.  The  subscription  of  private  capital 
has  constx-ucted  English  and  American  railways ;  but  in 
every  other  cotmtry  such  works  have  been  undertaken 
by  Government,  either  in  whole  or  in  part.  And  even 
in  the  United  States,  the  great  Pacific  Railroad,  com- 
pletmg  the  line  across  the  Continent,  was  largely  assist- 
ed by  the  Government.  So  Government  has  made  and 
maintained  roads,  erected  public  buildings,  undertaken 
irrigation  on  a  large  scale,  reclaimed  waste  land.  Among 
an  active  and  enterprising  people  such  work  would  be 
superfluous  or  even  mischievous,  but  when  an  important 
object  has  to  be  attained,  it  is  not  always  wise  for  the 
State  to  wait  till  private  persons  take  it  in  hand. 


LESSON  XXIV. 

TAXES. 

If  a  GoYernment  does  a  service,  it  must,  like  eveiy 
one  else,  be  paid  for  doing  it.  It  may  possess  an  estate, 
the  rents  of  which  may  be  sufficient  for  meeting  the 
charges  to  which  it  is  put  for  performing  the  service 
which  it  undertakes.  Sometimes  this  happens  to  a  lim- 
ited extent  in  this  country.  There  are  many  ancient 
towns  which  possess  large  estates,  the  value  of  which 
has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  demand  for  building 
sites.  But  no  general  Government  has  ever  had  an  es- 
tate sufficiently  large  to  meet  the  expenses  which  are 
thought  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  various  duties 
which  a  Government  fulfils. 

Recourse  must  therefore  be  had  to  some  other 
source  of  income.  The  several  persons  who  live  in  a 
community  are  called  upon  to  contribute  something  out. 
of  their  means  towards  the  cost  of  a  service  which  is  a 
benefit  to  everybody :  in  other  words,  they  pay  taxes. 

You  will  see  at  once  why  some  taxes  are  put  upon 
the  inhabitants  of  certain  places,  and  not  on  the  whole 
nation.  For  example  :  suppose  the  land  in  any  district 
of  New  Jersey  were  being  washed  away  by  the  sea,  as 
it  is  occasionally  on  the  coast,  and  that  by  some  outlay 


114  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

the  waste  of  land  might  be  stopped.  In  this  case  the 
people  who  live  in  Chicago  should  not  be  called  on  to 
pay  towards  saving  the  property  of  the  people  who  pos- 
sess land  in  those  maritime  counties :  the  necessary  ex- 
penses should  be  met  by  a  local  rate. 

Again,  it  is  no  doubt  desirable  in  the  minds  of  all 
who  have  any  idea  of  what  is  the  public  good,  that  pau- 
perism should  be  checked,  and  that  crime  should  be  de- 
tected and  punished.  To  a  certain  extent  both  these  so- 
cial evils  affect  everybody  :  but  they  ought  to  affect  the 
place  where  they  occur  most  of  all — pauperism  almost  en- 
tirely, crime  to  a  great  extent.  It  is  the  wise  and  just 
rule  of  our  law  that  such  a  system  should  be  adopted. 
The  State  aids  the  cost  of  pauperism  a  little,  the  cost  of 
crime  a  great  deal.  The  locality  pays  the  greater  part 
of  the  charges  incurred  for  the  first,  and  a  considerable 
amount  of  the  cost  incurred  for  the  second. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  tax  is  devoted  to  pur- 
poses which  benefit  everybody,  the  tax  should  be  col- 
lected from  everybody,  in  so  far  as  each  person  can  pay 
it.  The  public  defence  is  a  matter  of  universal  benefit. 
The  invasion  of  an  enemy  may  destroy  the  property  of 
the  wealthy,  it  is  sure  to  stop  the  industry  of  the  poor, 
who  suffer  even  more  than  the  rich  by  the  miseries  of 
war.  Let  us  suppose,  again,  that  part  of  the  work  of 
Government  consists  in  rewarding  those  who  have  done 
some  special  benefit  to  their  fellow-countrymen.  Here 
also  the  whole  nation  should  pay  for  that  by  which  the 
whole  nation  is  benefited. 

There  is  then,  apart  from  another  consideration,  which 
I  shall  refer  to  presently,  a  great  propriety  in  distinguish- 
ing between  taxes  which  are  paid  by  the  inhabitants  of 
particular  regions,  and  which  ^re  called  local,  and  taxes 


TAXES.  115 

•which  are  paid  by  the  whole  community,  because  they 
are  employed  for  piirposes  which  are  called  imperial,  or 
national.  The  distinction  is  founded  on  the  fact,  that 
people  pay  taxes  in  order  to  obtain  some  real  or  sup- 
posed benefit. 

The  other  consideration,  which  could  not,  except  for 
the  last-named  reason,  be  of  very  great  weight,  but 
which,  taken  with  that  reason,  is  of  great  value,  is  that 
the  local  collection  and  expenditure  of  taxes  promotes 
saving  and  educates  jieople  to  carry  on  the  government 
under  Avhich  they  live,  and  to  understand  its  working. 
If  all  the  taxes  needed  for  public  purposes  in  the  United 
States  were  paid  into  one  vast  treasury,  and  spent  by 
some  board  or  boards  situated  in  "Washington,  there 
would  certainly  be  great  waste,  and  everybody  but  those 
who  managed  matters  in  these  boards  would  be  un- 
trained  in  public  business.  Now  no  country  has  ever 
yet  succeeded  in  obtaining  real  freedom  where  there  has 
been  no  local  Government,  but  where  every  thing  has 
been  done  by  the  central  Government. 

The  benefit  of  protection  is  general,  and  the  cost 
ought  as  far  as  possible  to  be  met  by  payments  from  all. 
At  first  sight  it  would  seem  as  though  women  and  chil- 
dren were  more  protected  than  strong  men  are.  In  a 
sense,  perhaps,  they  are.  But  a  little  inquiry  will  show 
that  everybody  is  so  much  protected  by  a  good  and 
wise  Government,  that  the  diiference  between  the  help 
given  to  one  and  to  another  is  not  worth  reckoning. 
The  eflEect  of  insecurity  is  to  take  away  strength  from 
all  industry,  enjoyment  from  all  property.  If  society 
were  at  the  mercy  of  violence,  the  strongest  man  would 
be  only  a  little  more  helpful  than  a  child. 

Of  course,  it  is  the  business  of  a   Government  to 


116  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

make  the  cost  as  light  as  possible.  Every  tax  that  a 
person  pays  is  so  much  taken  away  from  his  power  of 
enjoyment,  and  every  man  has  a  natural  right  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  his  labor.  At  any  rate,  it  is  clear  that  if 
the  right  of  such  an  enjoyment  were  denied  him,  he 
would  be  in  the  condition  of  a  slave,  and  as  we  have  al- 
ready seen,  a  slave  has  only  the  lowest  motives  for  ex- 
ertion, and  no  motives  for  improvement. 

All  cost  is  so  much  taken  away  from  enjoyment.  It 
cost  far  more  labor  to  our  forefathers  to  get  the  neces- 
saries and  comforts  of  life  than  it  costs  us,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence their  enjoyments  were  fewer.  It  is  impossible 
for  labor  to  be  carried  on  without  cost,  but  the  inge- 
nuity of  man  is  always  directed  towards  making  the 
cost  as  light  as  can  be.  So  it  is  impossible  for  Govern- 
ment to  be  carried  on  without  taxes,  but  it  is  the  duty 
of  Government  to  make  the  taxes  as  few  as  possible, 
and  such  as  distress  the  peojDle  who  pay  them,  as  little 
as  possible. 

I  have  compared  society  to  a  great  partnership  in 
which  the  government  are  the  managers.  You  will  see 
from  what  I  have  already  said  in  this  lesson,  that  the 
comparison  is  made  more  clear  by  the  way  in  which  taxes 
are  collected,  and  by  the  principle  which  ought  to  guide 
those  who  put  taxes  on  the  people.  To  take  a  tax  for 
some  purpose  which  does  not  benefit  all  who  are  in  the 
partnership,  would  be  a  wrong;  to  lay  more  taxes  on 
the  people  than  are  sufficient  to  manage  the  great  part- 
nership, would  be  a  waste — would  be  to  pay  one  kind  of 
labor  more  than  its  due.  But  it  is  plainly  out  of  the 
question  to  imagine  that  the  management  could  be  car- 
i-ied  on  without  cost  or  expense.  All  good  service 
must  be  paid  for,  and  wise  government  is  the  best  of 
service. 


LESSON  XXV. 

WHAT   DO  TAXES   COME   FROM? 

Everybody  who  gets  the  aid  of  Government  should 
bear  a  portion  of  its  expenses.  But  it  is  plain  that  those 
who  have  nothing  cannot  pay.  A  person  who  is  main- 
tained at  the  public  charge,  Avithout  being  able  to  do  any 
work  in  return  for  his  maintenance,  can  pay  nothing 
except  in  so  far  as  those  who  maintain  him  pay  taxes  on 
his  behalf  So  those  who  can  earn  nothing,  but  are 
maintained  from  private  sources,  pay  to  the  needs  of  the 
State  only  through  their  relatives  and  friends, 

Now  this  very  plain  fact  leads  us  to  a  very  important 
rule.  The  only  source  from  which  a  person  can  pay  a 
tax,  is  from  that  portion  of  his  earnings  which  is  over 
and  above  the  cost  qf  his  own  subsistence,  and  the  cost 
of  those  whom  he  must  maintain  by  his  labor.  In  our 
country  it  is  seldom  the  case  that  the  earnings  of  people 
leave  them  nothing  whatever  to  pay  in  taxes.  Some 
people  allow  themselves  to  pay  a  great  deal  more  than 
they  ought  to  pay,  if  they  considered  the  true  needs  of 
themselves  and  their  children.  But  it  is  rarely  th6  case 
that  a  man's  income  is  wholly  consumed  in  bare  neces- 
saries, and  that  he  has  nothing  left  for  enjoyment.  Such 
men,  then,  can  and  do  pay  taxes ;  it  may  be  very  little, 
but  they  generally  pay  something. 


118  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

Some  taxes  are  paid  of  a  man's  own  free  will — /.c, 
he  can  avoid  paymg  them  if  he  chooses.  No  man  need 
drink  beer,  wine,  or  spirits,  or  smoke  tobacco  against 
his  will ;  and  it  is  certain  that  he  can  contrive  to  live 
without  the  use  of  any  of  these.  In  the  same  way,  tea 
and  coffee  are  not  absolute  necessaries  of  life,  though 
they  have  become  such  very  familiar  comforts  that  they 
may  be  almost  called  necessaries.  Sugar,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  a  necessary  of  life ;  it  is  a  kind  of  food,  and  a 
very  important  kmd  of  food  too.  Now  these  articles 
are  nearly  the  only  objects  on  the  use  of  which  the 
Government  of  tliis  country  lays  any  taxes. 

Some  taxes,  however,  are  paid  whether  a  man  wills 
or  not.  Most  local  taxes,  poor-rates,  house-tax,  and  the 
like  are  of  this  kind.  So  is  a  tax  on  a  man's  earnings, 
or  his  prof)erty,  taken  from  the  annual  income  of  the 
former,  or  on  the  value  of  the  latter.  Such  also  are  taxes 
levied  on  business,  as  on  buying  and  selling.  It  is  im- 
l^ossible  to  carry  on  the  affairs  of  life  without  buying 
and  selling. 

Generally,  however,  small  houses,  low  earnings,  and 
little  business  dealings  are  not  taxed.  Perhaps  the  rea- 
son is  that  it  would  cost  too  much  to  collect  them ;  per- 
haps it  is  seen  that  they  would  tend  to  cripple  business , 
perhaps  it  is  allowed  that  there  is  a  class  of  persons  who 
should  not  be  made  liable  to  pay  taxes  which  they  can- 
not avoid,  because  they  have  little  more  than  enough  to 
live  on. 

It'  will  be  clear,  then,  that  if  all  taxes  were  put  upon 
the  earnings  of  people,  and  none  on  their  spendings,  the 
tax  would  be  much  heavier  in  the  case  of  a  man  Avho 
has  a  family  of  children  to  keep,  than  it  would  be  on 
one  who  has  none ;  and  would  be  much  heavier  also  in 


^TIAT  DO   TAXES   COME   FROM?  119 

the  case  of  a  man  who  cannot  earn  his  income  without 
great  outgoings,  than  in  that  of  a  man  whose  income 
comes  to  him  without  any  outlay  whatever.  A  man 
who  can  choose  his  own  expenses,  and  who  is  constrained 
to  meet  certain  regular  demands  on  him,  may  keep 
within  compass.  But  if  his  expenses  are  fixed  by  some 
other  will  than  his  own,  as  would  be  the  case  if  the 
taxes  he  j^ays  were  laid  on  his  earnings  and  not  on  his 
spendings,  it  may  very  well  happen  that  the  tax  he  pays 
may  press  severely  on  his  means. 

Again,  it  will  be  clear  that  the  tax  which  is  paid  by 
a  man  of  small  earnings,  is  felt  to  be  harder  than  a  far 
larger  tax  paid  by  a  man  of  large  earnings  or  large  in 
come,  if  it  be  the  case  that  the  jjoorer  man  is  imable  to 
avoid  the  tax.  The  sacrifice  which  poverty  makes  is  fai 
greater  than  that  Avhich  wealth  makes,  just  as  the  charity 
of  the  poor  is  greater  self-denial  than  the  gifts  of  the 
rich.  A  tax  of  fifty  cents  a  week  out  of  five  dollars 
earnings,  is  a  much  more  serious  affair  than  taxes  of  five 
dollars  a  week  out  of  an  income  of  five  thousand  dollars 
a  year.  And  when  the  wealth  of  the  taxpayer  is  still 
greater,  the  sacrifice  is  still  less. 

Men  M^hose  incomes  are  very  little  may,  however, 
pay  a  veiy  large  part  of  the  taxes  of  a  country;  foi 
though  the  earnings  of  each  may  be  small,  they  become 
when  added  up  a  vast  sum.  The  same  rule  holds  good 
in  their  spendings.  It  has  been  reckoned  that  half  tlie 
taxes  of  England  are  paid  by  people  ^\'hose  earnings  are 
under  ten  dollars  a  Aveek.  They  would,  no  doubt,  be 
vastly  better  off  if  they  saved  a  portion  of  that  which 
they  spend ;  but  the  amount  which  they  do  spend  in  tax- 
paying  articles  of  their  own  free  choice,  is  so  great,  that 
if  it  were  saved,  it  would  keep  half  the  work  of  the 


120  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

country  going  on.  So  vast  is  this  amount,  that  it  is  hard 
to  say  Avhat  would  be  done,  if  the  money  received  by 
the  Government  from  this  quarter  were  to  cease  pour- 
ing in.  But  it  is  certain  that  more  than  half  the  misery, 
poverty  and  crime  which  disgrace  this  country — and  a 
good  many  other  countries  too — would  be  arrested,  if 
people  forbore  to  spend  on  those  articles  from  which 
the  Government  gets  so  much  by  taxation. 

Sometimes  a  country  does  not  take  all  that  it  needs 
by  taxes,  but  borrows  money,  and  pays  interest  on  that 
which  it  has  borrowed.  The  reason  why  this  is  done — 
if  the  true  reason  is  given — is  that  when  a  time  of  great 
difficulty  arises,  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  get 
what  is  needed  by  ordinary  taxation.  It  would  be  bet- 
ter to  do  so,  but  as  long  as  the  art  of  putting  taxes  on 
is  in  so  imperfect  a  state,  a  great  increase  in  the  expenses 
of  the  Government  would  j^ress  with  the  greatest  sever- 
ity on  the  poorer  classes — that  is,  on  those  whose  earn- 
mgs  very  little  exceed  their  expenses. 

Most  countries  have  borrowed  great  sums  of  money, 
and  require  a  great  income  in  annual  taxes  to  pay  the 
charge  for  these  loans.  These  sums  have  not  always 
been  borrowed  for  the  wisest  purposes.  Perhaps  as 
time  goes  on,  and  nations  get  to  be  wiser,  and  rulers  get 
wiser  also,  the  disposition  to  enter  upon  projects  which 
require  wasteful  borrowing  will  be  a  great  deal  checked. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  be ;  for  there  is  no  doubt 
that  in  the  long  run,  a  country  which  has  no  debts,  and 
therefore  comparatively  slight  taxes,  will  win  in  the  race 
against  others  which  have  incurred  debts,  and  have 
therefore  put  on  heavy  taxes. 


LESSON  XXVI. 

THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   CEIME. 

Why  do  men  pxinisli  crime  ?  Why  are  some  offences 
chastised  by  law,  while  others  which  are  often  very  mis- 
chievous in  their  consequences,  are  either  visited  by  light 
punishments,  or  not  punished  at  all? 

A  crime  is  an  offence  agamst  one  individual  or  more, 
or  against  all  individuals — i.e.,  against  the  community  at 
large.  To  the  former  class  belong  acts  of  violence  or 
fraud  committed  on  any  person  or  persons ;  to  the  latter, 
acts  which  offend  against  society  itself  Now  there  is  a 
constant  tendency  to  treat  offences  against  persons  as 
being  offences  against  society,  and  to  neglect  to  com- 
pensate the  person  who  has  undergone  harm  and  loss,  in 
the  anxiety  to  chastise  an  offence  wliich  may  be  said  to 
injure  all  men  who  live  in  the  same  community.  Nay, 
the  usages  of  modern  law  go  further  still ;  and  Govern- 
ments engage  by  treaty  to  give  up  persons  who  have 
committed  crimes  in  their  own  country,  and  have  fled  to 
a  foreign  country  in  order  to  escape  detection  and  pun- 
ishment. 

In  early  times  the  law  took  notice  only  of  the  in- 
jured person,  and  made  it  its  business  to  assist  or  re- 
compense him  against  a  wrong-doer.  In  the  oldest  sys- 
tems of  European  law,  wrongs  done  to  persons  were 
6 


122  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

looked  on  as  debts  incurred,  and  when  the  injury  was 
proved,  the  judge  directed  the  wrong-doer  to  pay  a  sum 
of  money  to  the  wronged  person ;  or  in  case  lie  could 
not  pay,  adjudged  him  to  be  the  slave  of  such  a  person. 
Even  murder  was  punished  with  a  heavy  fine  only.  And 
to  carry  this  notion  out  most  fully,  the  quantity  of  the 
fine  vaiied  with  the  rank  of  the  person  against  whom  the 
crime  was  committed. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  another  opinion  began 
to  prevail.  It  was  seen  that  an  oifence,  committed  mali- 
ciously, was  not  only  a  wrong  on  the  person  injured,  but 
a  wrong  to  society  itself  So  important  is  the  mainte- 
nance of  order,  and  so  serious  are  the  consequences  of 
disorder,  that  it  was  plainly  the  duty  of  Government  to 
save  society  from  these  outrages.  Thus  if  a  man  com- 
mits a  forgery,  though  this  is  really  an  attempt  to  cheat 
some  individual  only,  it  was  felt  that  this  offence  was  so 
mischievous  to  credit  and  good  faith — which  are  the  bonds 
of  society — that  the  punishment  of  the  offence  must  be 
referred  to  Government  only.  Again,  no  grosser  wrong 
can  be  conceived  than  wilful  murder.  But  for  many  a 
year  the  law  has  ceased  to  trouble  itself  with  the  injury 
done  to  the  family  and  friends  of  the  murdered  person, 
in  its  anxiety  to  avenge  the  wrong  done  to  the  order  and 
security  of  society. 

As  nations  become  more  civilized,  this  tendency  to 
look  on  offences  from  a  social,  rather  than  from  a  per- 
sonal point  of  view,  grows  stronger,  and  offences  are 
constantly  treated  as  crimes  rather  than  as  wrongs.  Of 
course  there  are  and  always  will  be  a  number  of  cases 
in  which  the  injury  done  to  the  individual  is  the  only 
thing  to  be  considered,  and  the  only  thing  to  be  righted. 
Thus  the  carelessness  which  makes  men  suffer  by  a  rail- 


THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   CRIME.  123 

way  accident,  is  treated  as  a  wrong  which  requires  com- 
pensation. A  theft  of  projierty  is  treated  as  a  wrong 
against  society ;  but  a  damage  done  to  property  is  gen- 
erally looked  on  solely  as  an  injury  to  the  person  whose 
property  has  been  diminished  in  value. 

Some  offences  may  be  treated  either  as  wrongs  or 
crimes.  If  a  man  libels  another — that  is,  says  something 
of  him  which,  being  false  and  malicious,  will  injure  hiui 
in  his  character  or  his  calling — the  person  who  is  wronged 
may  either  try  to  get  what  are  called  damages  for  the  in- 
jury, or  may  treat  the  person  as  a  criminal,  and  try  to 
get  him  punished.  Violence  done  to  a  man's  body  may 
be  chastised  similarly  in  either  way.  The  law  has  not 
yet  declared,  in  these  cases,  that  the  mischief  doiie  to 
society  is  greater  than  that  done  to  the  person  Avho  has 
been  the  subject  of  the  violence. 

So  much  for  the  person  injured.  The  offender,  as 
soon  as  it  has  been  decided  that  the  deed  is  to  be  treated 
as  a  crime  against  society,  is  always  visited  with  a  heav- 
ier penalty  than  his  offence  could  have  possibly  brought 
him  gain.  The  reason  is  clear.  It  is  the  business  ot 
law,  not  only  to  right  wrongs,  but  to  frighten  offenders. 
Now  the  wrong  is  not  merely  loss  of  property,  even 
when  the  individual  mjured  is  alone  considered.  If  a 
man  robs  his  fellow-man  of  five  dollars,  it  will  not  be  a 
sufficient  penalty  to  make  him  pay  back  the  five  dollars, 
for  this  is  not  the  extent  of  the  injury.  He  has  abused 
trust,  or  put  another  in  fear,  or  to  pain.  Besides,  to  mere- 
ly give  back  the  precise  amount  of  the  loss,  would  be  to 
treat  the  wrong-doer  as  though  he  were  only  a  debtor. 
Now  an  involuntary  creditor — one  who  has  been  made  a 
creditor  against  his  will — may  fairly  claim  more  recom- 


124  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

pense  than  one  who  entered  into  an  engagement  with 
another  of  his  fi*ee  choice. 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  he  has  not  only  put  the  injured 
l^erson  to  a  loss,  but  all  society.  He  has  rendered  ne- 
cessary the  maintenance  of  a  police,  of  courts  of  justice, 
and  prisons.  Were  there  not  such  persons  as  he,  all 
these  costly  arrangements  need  not  be  made.  His  con- 
duct is  not  only  a  loss  to  society,  but  is  a  disgi-ace.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  no  way  has  been  found  out  by 
which  those  who  commit  crimes  on  the  greatest  scale — 
those  who  sacrifice  people  to  warlike  ambition — can  be 
punished  according  to  their  deserts.  Unfortunately, 
however,  these  great  offences  go  impunished. 

Under  these  circumstances,  then,  those  offenders 
whom  the  law  does  reach,  are  liable  to  pay  what  I  may 
call  a  multiplied  or  a  double  penalty.  The  penalty  is 
multiplied,  because  the  offence  is  not  to  be  reckoned  only 
by  the  direct  loss  which  the  wrong  has  caused  to  the  in- 
jured person.  It  is  doubled,  because  not  only  the  man 
who  is  the  object  of  the  offence  is  to  be  considered,  but 
the  security  of  society  has  to  be  taken  into  account  too, 
and  the  costs  to  which  society  is  put  for  the  prosecution, 
correction,  and  pimishment  of  crime. 

But  there  is  even  another  reason  why  society  should 
seek  to  deter  offenders.  When  a  man  is  wronged  by  no 
fault  of  his  own,  he  is  not  protected  as  he  should  be  by 
that  Government  which  guarantees  his  protection,  and  for 
whose  guarantee  he  pays  his  part  towards  the  expenses 
of  state.  To  be  obliged  to  defend  a  right,  is  to  assert 
that  wi'ong  has  been  done.  If  it  be  proved  that  wrong 
has  been  done,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  make  the 
wrong  good,  if  possible,  or  least  to  prevent  its  occurring 
again.     From  these  motives,  it  sometimes  happens  that 


THE   PUNISHMENT   OF   CRIME.  125 

w'Len  certain  crimes  are  committed,  the  law  not  only 
strives  to  seek  out  and  pimish  the  guilty  persons,  but 
puts  a  fine  on  the  region  where  the  crime  was  committed, 
in  order  that  the  injured  person  may  be  righted,  and  the 
criminal  be  discovered. 


LESSON  xxvn. 

THE   PEIKCIPLE   OF  PUiTISHMENT. 

As  regards  the  offender,  then,  the  first  motive 
which  influences  the  law  in  chastising  him,  is  vengeance 
and  security.  To  avenge  a  wrong  is  a  natural  impulse ; 
to  commit  the  duty  of  exercising  this  vengeance  to  the 
law,  is  to  put  it  into  the  hands  of  a  judge  who  can  give 
sentence  without  passion,  in  accordance  with  a  rule 
which  has  been  laid  down  before  the  ofience  was  com 
mitted.  Nowadays,  no  one  thiuks  of  passing  a  law  m 
order  to  punish  an  offence  committed  before  the  law 
existed.  And  it  is  moreover  clear  that  the  law  intends 
by  its  punishments  to  afford  security.  It  may,  indeed, 
err  in  its  anxiety  to  obtain  this  security,  and  its  punish- 
ments may  have,  and  have  had,  exactly  the  opposite 
result  that  was  intended,  for  excessive  severity  defeats 
its  own  purpose. 

But  it  has  been  held  that  the  duty  of  the  law  is  of  a 
higher  kind,  and  that  along  with  the  punishment,  it 
ought  to  try  to  reform  the  criminal.  Now  there  is  no 
doubt  that  if  it  can  do  this,  it  may  sometimes  effect  a 
great  saving.  Of  all  wasteful  persons,  there  is  none 
more  wasteful  than  one  who  is  constantly  leading  a  life 
of  crime.  He  is  most  wasteful  if  he  is  not  detected  and 
punished ;  but  he  is  only  a  little  less  wastefol  if  he  is. 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  PUNISHMENT.  127 

Still  there  are  limits  to  the  benevolence  which  seeks  to 
reform  bad  people  at  the  expense  of  the  State — that  is, 
of  those  who  pay  taxes. 

Most  people,  perhaps  nearly  all  people,  are  agreed 
that  we  should  try  to  reform  youug  criminals.  There 
are  two  reasons  for  this.  In  the  first  place,  it  may  be 
fairly  said  that  when  very  yovmg  peojile  take  to  bad 
ways,  it  is  not  quite  then-  own  fault  that  they  do  so.  In 
ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  they  have  had  care- 
less or  bad  parents.  Now  it  is  not  just  to  punish  a  child 
for  his  parents'  fault.  It  used  to  be  thought  just  to  do 
so,  in  barbarous  times,  but  we  have  arrived  at  exactly 
opposite  views  on  the  subject  in  our  days,  and  have 
even,  perhaps,  gone  a  little  beyond  what  might  be  de- 
manded, in  order  to  avoid  the  older  and  barbarous  rule. 
In  the  next  j^lace,  there  is  sure  to  be  a  terrible  loss  in- 
curred when  a  habit  of  crime  begins  in  childhood. 

It  is  more  doubtful  whether  the  same  kind  of  care 
should  be  shown  in  the  case  of  older  culprits,  especially 
when  they  happen  to  be  persons  who,  having  had  a 
chance  given  them,  have  rej^eatedly  ofiended.  It  seems 
hard,  when  there  is  a  great  amount  of  undeserved  suffer- 
ing in  the  world,  that  the  resources  of  society  should  be 
turned  to  the  benefit  of  those  who  have  brought  upon 
themselves  whatever  inconvenience  they  sufier.  If  any- 
body is  to  be  helped,  it  surely  seems  that  help  is  due  to 
the  deserving  rather  than  to  the  undeserving. 

There  is  yet  another  reason  for  the  prevention  and 
correction  of  ofiences.  It  is  a  better  motive  than  that 
of  vengeance,  and  even  than  that  of  afibrding  security 
to  good  order.  The  crimes  of  bad  men  are  a  loss  to 
society.  But  they  are  also  a  disgrace  to  it.  Now  there 
IS  nothing  done  by  man  which  cannot  be  prevented  by 


128  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

man,  if  it  be  only  possible  to  find  out  the  way  in  which 
the  prevention  may  take  effect.  Probably  there  are 
many  persons  who  never  commit  an  offence  against  law 
in  their  whole  lives,  but  who  owe  their  freedom  from 
bad  actions  to  the  fact  that  they  are  checked  by  a  healthy 
fear  of  losing  their  character  or  reputation.  Now  it  may 
be  that  there  is  not  much  hoj)e  for  those  whose  charac- 
ter is  lost  already,  and  it  may  be  the  fact  that  very  few 
of  those  who  take  to  dishonest  courses  ever  mend  their 
ways.  But  it  would  be  a  great  thing  done  if  the  evil 
were  bounded  by  the  present  generation. 

The  good  or  ill  conduct  of  a  man  is  a  matter  of  srreat 
interest  to  their  fellow-men.  It  is  a  great  mistake  for 
anybody  to  think  that  he  should  be  merely  busied  with 
his  own  conduct,  and  that  he  need  be  under  no  concern 
for  that  of  others.  It  is  true  that  he  may  not  discover 
the  exact  amount  of  social  mischief  which  crime  and 
vice  cause,  but  he  may  be  certain  that  mischief  is  caused, 
and  that  his  business  is  to  check  it. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  fact  on  a  small  scale  in  the  man- 
agement of  a  school.  Perhaps  order,  obedience  to  law- 
ful commands,  regularity,  good  manners,  mutual  kindli- 
ness, care  not  to  wantonly  hurt  each  other's  feelings, 
truthfulness,  and  similar  acts  of  good  conduct,  are  quite 
as  important  matters  of  education  as  the  school  learn- 
ing which  a  boy  picks  up  from  his  master  and  in  his 
class.  Every  boy  in  school  can  imderstand  the  mischief 
which  idle,  disorderly,  rude,  and  ill-mannered  boys  do  to 
its  discipline  and  success.  Now  no  less  mischief  is  done 
to  society  at  large  by  these  and  similar  vices,  than  is 
done  to  a  school.  They  are  not  the  less  real,  because 
they  are  not  seen  so  plainly. 

And  this  leads  me  to  the  last  question  which  I  raised 


THE   rRmCIPLE   OF  PUNISHMENT.  129 

when  I  referred  to  the  fact  that  many  serious  offences 
are  visited  with  light  penalties,  or  are  not  punished  at 
all. 

If  a  man  tells  a  lie  in  a  court  of  justice,  when  giving 
evidence,  he  commits  an  offence*  which  is  severely  pun- 
ished. If  he  tells  a  he  when  he  is  selling  something  in 
his  shop — as,  for  example,  if  he  says  that  a  particular  ar- 
ticle is  genuine,  when  it  is  really  adulterated,  or  that  he 
gives  a  certain  measure  of  any  thing  when  the  quantity 
is  much  below  the  measure — he  is  not  pvmished  at  all,  or 
punished  very  lightly-  But  he  may  do  as  much  mischief 
to  society  by  the  trade  lie  as  he  does  by  false  swearing. 

So,  again,  if  a  man  attacks  another  savagely  in  the 
street,  or  starves  his  children  in  order  to  gratify  a  base 
liking  for  drink,  he  very  often  gets  off  easily,  or  is  not 
corrected  at  all ;  whereas,  if  he  caused  a  riot,  in  whicli 
far  less  real  mischief  is  done  than  in  the  other  cases,  he 
is  treated — and  justly  treated — with  great  severity. 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  reason  Avhy  this  neg- 
ligence occurs  is  frequently  due  to  the  fact,  that  the  law 
does  not  take  notice  of  many  offences  which  it  could  and 
should  chastise.  But  it  is  still  more  due  to  the  fact,  that 
it  is  desirable  to  hmit  the  operation  of  law  as  much  as  is 
possible,  due  regard  being  had  to  the  security  and  order 
of  society,  and  to  trust  as  much  as  possible  to  the  judg- 
ment of  what  may  be  called  jjublic  consciencx)  or  pub- 
lic opinion.  If  the  disgrace  which  should  attach  to  those 
who  commit  offences  against  what  society  knows  to  be 
right,  were  strong  enough  to  deter  all  from  evil  prac- 
tices, there  would  be  no  need  for  law  or  justice.  As  it 
is,  law  trusts  much  to  this  influence,  and  in  time  may 
perhaps  trust  more. 
6* 


LESSON  xxvin. 

KESTKAINTS   ON   PREEDOM. 

If  a  man  has  any  right,  it  is  that  of  a  free  control 
over  his  own  words,  acts,  and  property.  All  that  has 
been  done  for  mankind,  either  in  assisting  it  in  getting 
its  work  done  more  easily,  or  in  making  life  more  safe 
and  happy,  has  been  done  by  the  activity  of  free  minds. 
Slavery  makes  no  progress,  as  I  have  said  before.  Nor 
has  there  ever  been  any  thing  done  for  the  moral  good 
of  man,  except  by  those  who,  of  their  own  free  will, 
have  considered  their  neighbors'  good  in  the  first  place, 
and  have  thought  very  little  of  their  own  profit  or  ad- 
vantage. They  who  have  made  men  wiser  and  better 
have  always  made  great  sacrifices  in  order  to  do  so :  for 
there  is  no  exercise  of  one's  own  will  or  freedom,  which 
is  more  marked  than  that  of  the  man  who  chooses  what 
is  right  for  its  own  sake,  and  cares  nothing  for  the  con- 
sequences. 

But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  freedom  is  of  necessity 
limited  in  a  variety  of  ways.  In  the  first  place,  no  per 
son  can  claim  that  his  freedom  should  extend  to  allow 
ins:  him  to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  others.  There 
ought  not  to  be — and  properly  speaking  there  cannot  be 
— any  right  in  another  man's  wrong.  If  it  can  be  shown 
that  what  a  man  says  is  his,  cannot  be  his  without  caus- 


EESTEAIXTS   OX   FREEDOM.  131 

ing  loss  or  misery  to  his  neighbor,  it  shoukl  not  be  liis 
for  a  moment  after  such  a  loss  or  misery  is  proved  to 
come  from  the  possession  of  a  miscalled  right.  One  of 
the  most  manifest  of  rights  is  that  of  property  in  that 
which  is  the  result  of  one's  own  labor,  or  which  has  been 
purchased  by  one's  own  labor.  But  if  there  were  a 
man  in  a  besieged  city,  or  to  take  a  better  instance  still, 
on  a  desert  island,  who  possessed  by  right  of  property 
all  the  food  in  the  city,  or  all  the  food  which  had  been 
saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  ship,  and  he  would  not  al- 
low any  of  them  who  were  with  him  to  share  in  any  of 
that  which  is  his,  it  is  plain  that  in  neither  case  would  his 
companions  allow  him  to  exercise  his  full  rights  of  prop- 
erty. In  other  words,  they  would  not  permit  him  to 
maintain  a  right,  the  full  exercise  of  which  would  cause 
the  direst  misery  to  his  neighbors. 

What  is  true  in  the  case  I  have  quoted,  holds  good 
in  other  cases.  Strict  right  is  very  often  grievous  wrong, 
"and  cannot  be  endured.  This  maybe  shoAvn  m  many 
ways.  It  would  seem  to  be  a  right  that  a  man  should 
be  able  to  carry  on  what  industry  he  pleases  on  his  own 
premises.  But  if  he  carries  on  some  trade  which  injures 
the  health  or  destroys  the  comfort  of  others,  his  rights 
will  be  restrained.  If  a  man  possessing  a  vast  estate 
were  to  pull  down  every  house  on  it,  forbid  its  cultiva- 
tion, and  seek  to  make  it  a  desert,  his  claim  to  do  what 
he  wills  with  his  own  should  be,  and  probably  would  be, 
resisted,  even  if  he  were  not  proved  to  be  mad. 

It  is  true  that  there  is  generally  little  necessity  for 
checking  the  undue  use  of  such  a  right  as  that  which  lias 
been  referred  to  just  now,  for  no  one,  Ave  should  lliiuk, 
but  a  madman,  would  destroy  his  own  property.  But 
acts  may  be  done  on  a  small  scale  which  society  woukl 


132  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

not  permit  on  a  large  scale.  It  is  a  difficulty  to  decide 
when  they  are  done  on  so  large  a  scale  as  to  call  for  the 
interference  of  law.  When  they  are  so  done,  the  Legis- 
lature sometimes  deals  with  the  difficulty. 

Again,  the  rights  of  a  parent  over  a  child  are  neces- 
sary, in  order  that  a  home  should  be  well  governed. 
But  the  law  will  not  allow  a  father  to  ill-use  his  children, 
to  deny  them  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  to  refuse  them 
proper  education.  The  freedom  or  discretion  of  the 
parent  may  be  granted,  but  this  freedom  must  have  its 
limits.  The  same  rules  apply  to  other  relations — as  of 
husband  and  wife,  master  and  servant,  teacher  and 
pujiil. 

The  best  state  of  society  is  that  in  Avhich  the  greatest 
possible  liberty  is  given  consistently  with  no  wrong 
beincr  done  to  others.  In  so  far  as  this  result  can  be 
secured  by  law,  the  statesman  makes  it  his  business  to 
decide  where  liberty  can  be  allowed,  and  where  order 
must  be  maintained.  He  is,  as  it  were,  a  judge  between  • 
those  who  claim  a  right,  and  those  who  assert  thai  the 
exercise  of  the  right  is  a  wrong. 

But  there  are  a  number  of  instances  in  which  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  is  in  a  manner  restrained, 
though  no  harm  could  accrue  to  society  at  large  if  he 
used  his  liberty.  Thus,  for  example,  there  are  certain 
demands  w^hich  fashion,  or  custom,  or  manners  make  upon 
every  person.  Most  Americans  wear  the  same  fashion  of 
clothes,  adopt  the  same  customs,  and  accept  or  obey 
certain  rules  of  politeness  or  good  manners.  No  real 
harm  would  happen  if  some  persons  thoiight  proper  to 
wear  their  clothes  inside  out,  or  adopt  a  dress  which 
would  be  quite  diiferent  from  what  is  usual,  or  followed 
out-of-the-way  customs,  or  practised  manners  different 


EESTRALNTS   ON   FEEEDOM.  I33 

from  what  most  people  think  proper  behavior.  Nations 
vary  much  in  these  particulars,  and  what  would  be 
right  conduct  in  some  countries,  would  be  considered 
very  strange  and,  perhaps,  improper  in  this.  Why- 
should  such  restraints  be  put  on  the  freedom  of  people  ? 

The  fact  is  that  the  usages  and  customs  of  life  are 
part  of  that  training  by  which  people  get  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all  accomplishments — the  habit  of  self-restraint 
or  self-control.  It  does  not  follow  that  this  habit  is 
peculiar  to  civilized  people  only.  There  are  savage  or 
half-savage  races  who  are  most  carefully  polite  and  self- 
restrained.  This  is  i^eculiarly  the  character  of  the  Red 
Indian  tribes  of  North  America,  who  are  nevertheless 
so  uncivilized,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  that  they 
seem  to  be  incapable  of  adopting  a  settled  life. 

That  man  or  boy  is  not  very  likely  to  be  worth  much 
to  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  who  has  no  respect  for 
the  good  opinion  of  others,  or  who  is  indiiferent  to  their 
just  censure.  A  proper  sense  of  shame  at  misconduct 
or  any  breach  of  good  manners,  is  the  means  by  which 
men  arrive  at  the  best  social  gift  they  can  obtain — a  nice 
and  careful  sense  of  honor.  The  self-respect  Avhich 
every  one  ought  to  feel,  and  which  is  the  foundation  of 
true  manliness  in  men  and  true  giace  in  women,  comes 
from  the  feeling  that  one  has  done  nothing  to  forfeit  the 
respect  of  those  about  one.  But  to  get  the  respect  of 
others,  one  must  show  respect  to  them — and  give  as  well 
as  take.  Now,  though  this  is  giving  up  part  of  one's 
own  will  or  liberty,  it  sacrifices  a  little  m  order  to  gain 
much  more 


LESSON  XXIX. 

EESTEAINTS     ON     CALLINGS. 

There  are  certain  callings  which  any  man  may  enter 
on,  if  he  is  able  to  take  them  in  hand,  and  can  get  liis 
living  by  them.  There  are  some  which  can  be  entered 
on  only  when  the  law  allows  the  man  to  follow  the  occu- 
pation. There  are  some  which  every  man  is  allowed  to 
follow,  b  Lit  in  the  exercise  of  which  the  law  puts  a  man 
under  control.  There  are  some  in  which  the  law  only 
allows  a  limited  number  of  persons  to  be  engaged. 

Now  at  the  present  time,  whatever  may  have  hap- 
pened in  time  past,  it  is  always  supposed  that  any 
restraint  put  on  those  who  have  to  choose  the  means  by 
which  to  get  their  living,  is  put  for  the  general  good  of 
the  whole  community,  and  that  reason  should  be  shown 
that  this  good  is  intended.  In  other  words,  freedom  of 
occupation  in  the  rule,  restraint  is  the  exception.  But 
at  different  times  in  the  history  of  all  countries,  the 
various  kinds  of  restraint  mentioned  at  the  head  of  this 
lesson  have  applied  to  very  different  caUings.  Rulers 
have  had  very  different  views  as  to  what  is  the  public 
good.  But  some  occuj^ations  have  always  been  put 
imder  restraint,  or  the  rule  of  a  police. 

The  great  majority  of  callings  can  be  followed  at 
pleasure.  Any  man  may  become  a  tradesman  in  the 
ordinary  meaning  of  the  word,  or  a  common  laborer, 
or  a  farmer.     There  never  was,  and  mdeed  never  could 


RESTEAINTS   ON   CALLINGS.  I35 

be  a  time,  wh<n  men  were  prevented  from  occupying 
and  tilling  lai.d,  for  the  very  good  reason,  that  the 
means  by  which  everybody  lives  must  be  obtained  by 
agriculture  and  similar  callings.  There  have  been  times 
indeed  when  persons  who  were  engaged  in  tilling  the 
soil  were  forbidden  to  go  into  any  other  calling,  partly 
that  the  land  might  be  tilled,  partly,  I  fear,  in  order  that 
laborers  might  be  plentiful,  and  therefore  labor  be  cheap. 

But  in  old  days  a  man  could  very  seldom  open  a 
shop,  at  least  in  a  town,  whenever  he  pleased.  In  the 
old  English  towns,  as  in  the  towns  of  other  countries, 
the  right  to  keep  a  shop  was  granted  only  on  application, 
generally  after  a  payment,  and  after  the  person  had  been 
entered  into  the  books  of  some  trading  company.  This 
rule,  for  example,  used  to  be  universal  in  London.  You 
may  see  many  handsome  buildings  in  the  city  of  Lon- 
don, M^hich  are  called  the  halls  of  certain  companies.  In 
those  buildmgs,  now  generally  devoted  to  feasts,  the 
several  members  of  these  comjjanies  used  to  meet,  and 
admit  persons  to  the  principal  privilege  which  the  com- 
pany possessed,  which  was  that  of  being  the  only 
persons  who -were  allowed  to  deal  in  the  several  ai'ticlcs 
from  which  the  company  took  its  name  or  title. 

This  rule  has  long  passed  away  among  Englishmen, 
and  never  was  in  force  in  the  United  States.  Anybody 
may  now  set  up  any  ordinary  shojj  wherever  he  pleases, 
either  in  town  or  country,  and  no  one  can  hinder  him ; 
but  the  liberty  of  trade  which  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can people  possess  is  not  granted  in  many  other  coun- 
tries. In  certain  German  towns,  for  exami)le,  a  journey- 
man is  obliged  to  wait  lor  years  before  he  can  get  the 
license  to  open  a  shoj),  set  up  a  manufacture,  or  follow  a 
trade. 


136  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

After  he  has  got  the  license,  he  is  often  tied  down  by  a 
host  of  regulations,  which  are  found  very  inconvenient 
and  023pressive.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  of 
the  activity  and  industry  which  belong  to  this  country 
are  due  to  the  general  freedom  which  people  enjoy  in 
the  choice  of  their  calling  or  occupation. 

There  are  some  kinds  of  industry  among  ourselves 
which,  although  they  are  free  to  anybody  to  choose, 
cannot  be  entered  on  without  some  previous  apprentice- 
ship. At  present  there  is  no  law  which  forbids  any 
man  from  undertaking  any  kind  of  manual  labor,  though 
in  old  times  no  joerson  could  follow  any  trade  or  art 
withou^t  having  been  apprenticed  to  it ;  but  this  law  has 
been  disused  or  abandoned.  There  are,  indeed,  trades 
or  callings  in  which  some  persons  are  always  appren- 
ticed before  they  are  able  to  follow  them.  The  rule  is 
not,  as  I  have  said,  a  law,  but  a  custom  of  the  trade, 
enforced  by  some  by-law  or  regulation  which  the  work- 
men in  that  trade  have  made  for  themselves.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether  such  a  restraint  is  hkely  to  last 
much  longer.  When  the  law  does  not  speak,  custom 
is  pretty  sure  to  give  way  to  liberty.  » 

As  you  have  learned  already,  the  wages  which  peo- 
ple receive  in  any  calling  are  regulated  partly  by  the 
need  which  there  is  for  the  service  which  such  persons 
can  render,  partly  by  the  cost  of  making  the  workman 
fit  for  his  calling,  partly  by  the  number  of  persons 
willing  to  be  employed.  When  there  is  a  little  need 
for  the  service,  and  the  cost  for  supplying  the  service  is 
small,  and  the  number  of  workmen  is  great,  wages  will 
be  low.  When  diiferent  circumstances  arise,  wages  are 
high.  Now  the  desire  to  obtain  what  the  workman 
makes  hes  in  the  mind  of  the  man  who  needs  his  service, 


RESTRAnsTS   ON   CALLINGS.  137 

and  the  workman  can,  by  himself,  exercise  no  control  or 
influence  over  such  a  desire  or  demand. 

He  can,  however,  bring  his  influence  to  bear  on  the 
other  two  factors — as  arithmeticians  say — in  the  calcula- 
tion. He  may  make  labor  dear  and  scarce,  by  making 
the  preparation  of  the  laborer  costly,  or  by  limiting  the 
number  of  people  seeking  employment.  Now  an  ap- 
prenticeship eflects  both  these  ends.  It  is  possible  that 
the  apprentice  may  learn  the  art  in  wliich  he  is  to  be 
instructed  in  a  quarter  of  the  time  duruig  which  his 
apprenticeship  lasts.  If  the  time  be  prolonged,  the 
effect  is  that  his  power  of  earnmg  wages  on  his  own 
accomit  is  put  off".  But  this  is  just  the  same  as  making 
his  preparation  more  costly  than  it  would  naturally  be. 

The  same  process  makes  the  number  of  laborers 
fewer.  In  some  of  those  callings  where  it  is  the  custom 
that  workmen  should  have  been  apprenticed,  there  is 
often  another  custom,  that  no  master  can  take  more 
than  a  limited  number  of  apprentices.  Here  the  quan- 
tity of  labor  is  directly  limited.  But  it  is  also  limited 
whenever  more  time  than  is  necessary  is  given  towards 
making  the  workman  fit  for  his  calling,  since  whatever 
makes  some  kinds  of  labor  costly,  makes  some  kinds  of 
laborers  scarce. 


LESSOK  XXX. 

LAWS     FIXING     PRICES. 

Ii  has  often  been  thought  to  be  good  for  the  public 
at  large  that  there  should  be  a  rule  which  might  fix  the 
number  of  persons  engaged  in,  or,  at  least,  restrain  an 
excessive  number  of  persons  from  entering  into,  any 
one  calling.  But  the  difficulty  is  to  fix  the  number 
which  should  be  employed  or  could  be  employed,  and 
to  decide  on  the  callings  which  should  be  put  under 
regulation.  Even  if  the  number  could  be  settled,  and 
the  callings  could  be  decided  on,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  a 
great  many  abuses  would  occur.  It  might  be  an  advan- 
tage to  enter  on  such  an  occupation,  and  they  who  would 
be  appohated  to  manage  the  system,  as  well  as  those 
who  might  profit  by  it,  might  enter  into  some  dishonest 
bargain. 

There  is  no  way  to  avoid  the  risk  of  such  dishonesty, 
except  by  fixing  the  price  at  which  the  service  or  work 
should  be  sold.  But  there  are  very  few  objects  which 
can  be  treated  in  tliis  manner.  In  those  which  are  so 
treated,  it  is  only  possible  to  take  a  rough  or  general 
rule  by  which  to  fix  the  price.  This  rule  may  be  made 
much  more  exact  in  some  cases  than  it  can  be  in  others. 
But  in  every  case,  the  person  who  is  subjected  to  the 


LAWS  rES:iNG  PRICES.  139 

rule  niust  be  liberally  dealt  with,  that  the  price  which  is 
fixed  may  cover  the  risk  of  his  business. 

In  the  days  of  our  forefathers,  it  was  the  custom  to 
fix  the  price  of  bread  by  law.  One  of  the  earliest  laws 
among  the  English  statutes  is  that  which  fixed  the  price 
of  bread.  .  Of  course,  no  one  could  fix  the  price  of  corn, 
for  the  value  of  food  depends  on  its  plenty  or  scarcity, 
and  plenty  or  scarcity — at  least  in  those  countries  which 
cannot  or  will  not  buy  in  other  countries  when  food  is 
scarce  at  home — depends  wholly  on  the  seasons.  Hence 
in  England,  which  depended  entirely  on  itself  for  all  the 
supplies  of  food  which  its  people  needed,  there  were 
great  variations  in  the  price  of  bread.  In  cheap  years 
it  was  excessively  plentiful,  in  dear  years  it  sometimes 
mounted  three  or  even  four  times  above  the  usual  price. 
Now  we  need  hardly  be  told  that  if  in  our  time  a  loaf, 
which  usually  in  England  costs  sixpence,  were  to  be 
worth  two  shillings,  many  peoj^le  would  starve. 

Our  forefathers,  of  course,  could  find  no  means  by 
which  to  prevent  these  sudden  changes.  They  tried 
•one  or  two  plans,  but  they  only  made  matters  worse  by 
their  efibrts.  But  they  could — or  thought  they  could — 
fix  the  price  at  which  the  baker's  service  should  be  paid. 
So  they  made  a  law  which  declared  that  the  price  of  a 
certain  weight  of  bread  should  always  follow  the  price 
of  a  certain  measure  of  wheat.  In  the  same  spirit,  and 
with  the  same  intention,  they  ruled  that  a  certain  measure 
of  beer  should  follow  the  price  of  a  certain  measure 
of  malt.  The  regulations  have  been  given  up,  because, 
in  course  of  time,  it  was  argued  that  all  the  real  advan- 
tage wliich  the  law  attempted  to  secure  for  the  public, 
could  be  obtained  by  competition  among  bakers  and 
"brewers.     It  is  not,  however,  perfectly  clear  that  com- 


140  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

petition  does  always  make  the  cheapest  price,  or  that 
competition  acts  at  all  in  certain  callings. 

They  among  my  readers  who  live  m  towns  are  prob- 
ably aAvare  that  the  price  at  Avhich  public  carriages  can 
be  used  is  fixed  by  law.  A  London  cabman,  who  is 
licensed  to  carry  persons  in  the  carriage  which  he  di'i  ves, 
is  obliged,  unless  he  have  some  reasonable  excuse  to  the 
contrary,  to  carry  any  person  who  claims  his  services,  and 
to  carry  him  at  a  fixed  price.  The  reason  why  this  price 
has  been  fixed  is,  that  the  driver  may  not  demand  an  ex- 
cessive charge  from  those  who  are  in  his  carriage.  It  is 
plain,  however,  that  the  price  at  which  he  may  be  con- 
strained to  carry  them  ought  to  cover  his  own  mainten- 
ance and  other  wages — the  cost  of  keeping  his  horse 
or  horses,  or  repairing  his  carriage — of  some  return 
for  the  original  cost  of  both  horses  and  carriage — oi 
the  risks  which  he  runs  that  he  may  not  be  employed, 
and  of  any  change  which  may  be  expected  to  take 
place  in  the  price  of  the  food  on  which  his  horse  or 
horses  live. 

But  there  is  a  difference  between  fixing  a  price  at 
which  a  man  shall  work,  and  obliging  him  to  fix  the 
price  at  which  he  will  work,  and  giving  public  notice  of 
it.  It  seems  that  the  latter  is  the  fairer  course,  and  it 
has  been  adoi^ted  in  the  case  which  I  have  given.  It  is 
clearly  just  to  the  man  who  does  the  labor,  and  it  is  even 
better  for  those  who  use  the  service  or  convenience.  If 
the  law  fixes  the  price,  the  person  who  is  controlled  by 
the  law  may  be,  and  constantly  is,  induced  to  say  that 
the  law  puts  the  price  too  low,  arid  may  ajjpeal  to  the 
public  for  more  than  the  law  allows  him.  But  if  he 
fixes  his  own  price,  and  is  obliged  to  publish  and  keep 
to  it,  he  cannot  complain  of  unfairness,  since  it  is  his 


LAWS  FlXma  PRICES.  141 

own  wiL  whether  he  chooses  to  work  at  the  rate  at 
ar  which  he  fixes  his  own  labor. 

There  are  certain  kinds  of  services  in  which  the  law 
is  bound  to  fix  the  price.  If  it  gives  or  permits  a  sole 
right  of  doing  a  necessary  service,  its  duty  is  to  regulate 
the  rate  at  which  the  service  is  to  be  done.  For  in  order 
that  men  should  be  free  to  fix  the  rate  of  that  which 
they  ofier  for  sale,  they  who  may  need  to  use  what  is 
sold  ought  to  have  the  power  of  dealing  where  they 
like.  There  is  no  freedom  of  trade  in  a  bargain  where 
one  is  obliged  to  buy,  and  another,  being  the  only  person 
who  is  able  to  sell,  is  perfectly  able  to  exact  whatever 
price  he  likes. 

Hence  the  law  (or  those  to  whom  the  law  gives 
powers)  fixes  the  highest  price  at  which  a  railway  shall 
carry  passengers  and  goods.  In  reality,  everybody  must 
use  the  services  of  a  railway,  if  he  wishes  to  be  carried 
conveniently  from  place  to  place,  or  to  procure  goods 
which  have  to  be  conveyed  from  a  distance.  It  is  true 
that  if  the  railway  directors  fixed  too  high  a  price,  they 
might  check  the  use  of  that  convenience  which  they  sup- 
ply. But  they  would  only  check  that  use  which  people 
can  make  if  they  please,  not  the  use  which  must  be 
made.  They  might  put  an  end  to  journeys  taken  for 
pleasure,  but  those  which  must  be  undertaken  for  busi- 
ness would  go  on.  Hence  the  law  does  not  allow  them 
the  privilege  of  fixing  and  publishing  whatever  price 
they  please  to  set,  but  decides  what  is  the  highest  price 
which  they  can  claim.  For  the  reason  which  I  have 
given  before,  this  is  no  wrong — no  interference  with  free 
exchange.  Wherever  one  dealer  has  such  an  advantage 
over  the  other  dealer  as  to  be  able  to  charge  what  may 
be  called  a  famine  price,  the  law  may  fairly  interfere. 


LESSON  XXXI. 

KEGULATIONS   OJST   PROFESSIOiirS. 

It  was  stated  in  a  former  lesson  that,  as  a  rule,  people 
are  allowed  by  the  laws  nnder  which  they  live,  to  choose 
the  calling  in  which  they  may  get  their  living;  and  that 
the  laws  which  grant  this  liberty,  while  in  force  in  the 
United  States  from  almost  the  beginning  of  its  history, 
have  only  been  very  gradually  passed  in  England,  and 
do  not  hold  good  in  many  other  countries.  Even  in 
England  and  with  us  there  are  certain  callings  in  which 
the  law  does  not  allow  persons  to  engage,  whenever  and 
however  they  like,  but  still  maintains  restrictions  which 
were  once  general. 

They  who  engage,  for  example,  in  the  two  profes- 
sions of  law  and  physio,  are  obliged  under  penalties — or 
disabilities  which  come  to  the  same  thing  as  penalties — 
to  go  through  a  course  of  training  which  in  eifect  is  just 
the  same  as  that  of  apprenticeship  to  a  trade  or  craft. 
A  lawyer  has  to  go  through  a  regular  course  of  study 
for  his  profession,  and  pass  an  examination  before  a  com- 
mittee of  la^^ers  appointed  for  the  purpose,  before  he 
can  be  admitted  to  what  is  called  the  Bar,  or  the  associ 
ation  of  lawyers  of  his  State.  And  so  a  doctor  or  sur- 
geon is  obliged  to  get  experience  in  some  other  doctor's 


EEGULATIONS  ON  PROFESSIONS.  143 

oi*  surgeon's  business,  to  study  at  some  public  hospital, 
and  also  to  pass  an  examination,  before  he  is  allowed  to 
carry  on  business  on  his  own  accoimt. 

Again,  there  are  certain  persons  whom  the  Govern- 
ment employs,  and  whom  it  pays,  either  in  wnole  or 
in  part,  and  from  whom  it  exacts  a  proof  that  they  are 
competent  to  do  what  they  undertake.  Schoolmasters 
appointed  in  schools  which  are  brought  imder  the  con- 
trol of  Government  are  required  to  satisfy  certain  officers 
of  Government  that  they  arc  fit  to  undertake  the  busi- 
ness of  education,  at  least  as  far  as  their  own  knowledge 
is  concei'ned.  So  persons  who  are  employed  to  navigai  e 
the  ships  which  belong  to  the  nation  are  supposed  to  be 
put  to  the  test'of  whether  they  know  their  business,  and 
are  able  to  prevent  the  ship  from  being  lost. 

Xow  it  is  easy  to  account  for  these  last-named  cases. 
If  the  nation  emj^loys  labor,  it  has  a  right  to  know 
whether  those  who  offer  themselves  for  employment  are 
fit  to  undertake  that  which  they  profess  to  do.  In 
ordinary  business,  where  the  master's  eye  is  everywhere, 
or  ought  to  be  everywhere,  evidence  supplied  by  others 
as  to  the  fitness  of  those  whom  he  hires  may  be  useful, 
but  is  not  necessary ;  for  the  master  or  employer  may  be 
able  to  exercise  his  own  judgment,  not  only  to  decide 
whether  the  person  who  wishes  to  work  for  him  is  fit, 
in  point  of  knowledge,  but  also  whether  he  is  fit  in  point 
of  power  to  use  the  knowledge  which  he  possesses. 

The  eye  of  the  Govennncnt  is  not  everywhere. 
Hence  it  is  necessary  to  do  the  best  which  can  be  done 
— to  find  out  as  far  as  mere  knowledge  goes  on  the  part 
of  those  who  aspire  to  public  employment,  whether  they 
are  equal  to  the  duties  Avhich  they  profess  to  be  able  to 
fulfil.     Of  course  this  is  not  every  thing.     It  is  one  tiling 


144  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

to  know,  another  to  use  that  whicli  is  known,  and  to  turn 
it  to  the  best  account.  There  are  some  people  who  can 
manage  to  lay  out  the  goods  they  have  for  sale  in  so 
clever  a  maimer  as  to  make,  so  to  speak,  five  dollars 
worth  of  their  own  look  as  well  as  twenty-five  dollars' 
worth  of  another  man's.  And  in  just  the  same  way 
people  with  very  inferior  powers  and  accomplishments 
may  make  a  far  more  skilful  and  showy  use  of  them 
than  others  who  are  possessed  of  far  greater  learning  or 
information. 

But  why  should  law  interfere  in  order  to  supply 
l^roof  that  a  lawyer  or  physician  is  able  to  do  that 
Avliich  he  i^rofesses  to  do  ?  Why  is  it  more  the  duty  of 
tlie  State  to  prove  that  the  one  sells  good  advice  about 
such  rights  as  people  possess  in  property,  and  the  other 
good  advice  about  their  health,  than  to  proAe  that  a 
shoemaker  knows  how  to  make  good  shoes  and  a  tailor 
good  clothes  ?  Why  undertake  this  duty,  and  not 
another  duty,  of  providing  that  a  grocer  should  know 
how  to  buy  his  sugar  and  cheese,  a  butcher  buy  good 
animals  for  meat  ? 

In  some  shape  or  other,  the  law  does  provide  a  means 
for  preventing  the  abuse  of  any  trade  or  occupation. 
It  supplies  a  police  in  case  of  fraud  or  adulteration — 
that  is,  of  passing  oif  articles  as  genuine  or  sound, 
when  they  are  not  so,  of  i:)unishing  those  who  sell  bad 
or  unwholesome  provisions.  It  is  the  business  of  Gov- 
ernment to  protect,  as  far  as  possible,  all  those  whom 
it  is  bound  to  care  for  against  force  or  fraud,  and  it  does 
so  with  more  or  less  success,  and  more  or  less  zeal. 

There  must  be  some  special  reason  or  reasons  why 
the  law  exacts  proof  of  skill  in  the  case  of  the  two 
professions  which  I  have  named.     One  of  these  refers 


REGULATIONS  ON  PROFESSIONS.  145 

directly  to  the  public  good,  the  other  assists  the  same 
object  in  a  less  direct  manner. 

Most  people  are  fair  enough  judges  of  what  they 
buy.  There  are  certain  goods,  the  quality  of  which 
every  one  of  any  experience  knows.  Such  goods  are 
provisions.  So,  again,  it  is  no  very  difficult  matter  to 
find  out  whether  a  pair  of  shoes  is  worth  what  has  been 
paid  for  them,  or  whether  a  suit  of  clothes  has  been 
properly  made  of  such  materials  as  the  price  will 
warrant.  If  the  pm-chaser  has  been  deceived  by  the 
tradesman,  he  has  been  wronged,  and  ought  to  be 
righted ;  but  after  all,  the  loss  or  inconvenience  is  not 
so  serious  as  to  require  that  the  trader  should  be 
prohibited  from  carrying  on  his  calling;  or  to  justify 
the  law  in  exacting  proof  that  he  ought  to  show  his 
fitness  before  he  is  allowed  to  pursue  the  calling. 

But  in  the  case  of  the  lawyer  or  physician,  ignorance 
might  cause  ruin  or  death.  It  is  not  enough  that  the 
persons  who  use  the  services  of  those  who  are  em- 
ployed in  these  professions  may  have  a  means  provided 
them  for  being  righted,  in  case  their  advisers  have  been 
6o  unskilful  as  to  do  them  a  great  wrong;  it  seems 
proper  that  precautions  should  be  adopted  in  order  to 
prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  unskilfulness  itself 

The  other  reason  is  that  there  are  callings  in  which 
it  is  expedient  to  strengthen  the  intelligence  of  those 
who  practise  them  by  appealing  to  their  mutual  honor. 
Schoolboys  know  that  there  are  many  acts  which  it 
would  be  almost  impossible  for  a  master  to  find  cut, 
but  which  would  disgrace,  or  ought  to  disgrace,  the 
whole  school  if  they  were  committed.  Now  such  acts, 
when  the  boys  are  worth  anything,  are  prevented  by 
the  good  sense,  or  honor  of  the  boys  themselves. 
7 


146  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

But  a  profession  is  tlius  far  like  a  school.  It  can  act 
together,  and  have  a  character  of  its  own.  There  are 
many  people  who  feel  that  if  they  disgrace  their  school 
or  their  profession,  they  are  in  the  highest  degree  dis- 
gracing themselves. 


LESSON  XXXII. 

FOKBIDDEN     C  A  L  L  I  >h  G  S  . 

Some  kinds  of  callings  are  absolutely  forbidden. 
They  are  treated  as  in  themselves  illegal  or  unlawful; 
illegal,  when  the  necessities  of  the  State  forbid  persons 
to  engage  in  an  occupation  which  is  not  in  itself  dis- 
honest or  vicious,  unlawful  when  the  calling  cannot  be 
entered  on  or  practiced  without  doing  some  injury  to 
society  at  large.  I  will  try  to  illustrate  what  I  have 
said. 

It  has  been  stated  several  times  that  no  reasonable 
law  will  proliibit  or  even  control  those  persons  who 
choose  to  devote  their  labor  to  agriculture.  The  more 
wheat  or  other  grain  is  grown  in  any  country,  the  more 
cattle,  sheep,  and  pigs  are  reared,  the  better  is  it  for  the 
people  at  large.  If  the  labor  of  the  husbandman  is 
devoted  toward  producing  luxuries,  or  comforts,  such 
a  person  is  adding  to  the  enjoyments  of  the  people. 

Still  there  is  one  plant  which  the  farmer  in  England 
and  some  other  countries  is  forbidden  to  grow.  This 
is  tobacco.  There  is  no  reason  in  nature  why  a  farmer 
should  not  cultivate  tobacco,  as  well  as  turnips.  But 
the  English  government  collects  a  tax  on  tobacco,  and 
this  tax  is  so  considerable,  and   adds  so  much  to  the 


148  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

price  of  the  article,  that  a  variety  of  restrictions  or 
regulations  must  be  put  on  its  importation  into  the 
country.  Now  in  order  to  save  the  revenue  from  a  loss 
which  might  arise  in  case  private  persons  grew  this 
plant  for  their  own  use,  or  for  sale,  the  cultivation  ol 
tobacco  is  forbidden  by  law,  except  under  such  circum- 
stances as  could  not  j^ossibly  diminish  the  amoimt  of 
the  tax  which  is  collected. 

I  will  take  another  case.  There  is  no  natural  reason 
why  private  persons  should  not  coin  money.  In  ancient 
times  they  did  so,  though  always  after  having  obtained 
a  license.  There  is  not  much  more  difficulty  m  stamp- 
ing gold,  silver,  or  copper  coins,  than  there  is  in  stamp- 
ing metal  buttons.  If  the  money  which  such  private 
persons  issued  were  as  good  or  as  fine  as  that  which  the 
Government  issues  from  the  Mint,  the  public  would  be 
none  the  worse  oif,  and  some  persons  think  it  would  be 
even  better  oif. 

The  restraint  which  is  laid  on  the  practice  of  coining 
— ^by  which  I  do  not  mean  putting  bad  money  into  cir- 
culation, which  is  one  of  the  basest  and  meanest  crimes 
which  can  be  committed,  but  by  which  I  mean  the 
manufacture  of  as  good  money  as  comes  out  of  the 
Mint — is  partly  imj)osed  for  the  sake  of  the  Mint  itself, 
partly  for  the  sake  of  the  public. 

The  price  of  everything  in  this  coimtry  is  measured 
by  gold.  We  speak  of  dimes  and  cents,  because  these 
words  are  short  or  convenient  ways  of  expressing  frac- 
tious of  a  dollar.  But  a  person  who  buys  or  sells  any 
article  for  a  dime,  or  a  cent,  really  buys  and  sells  for  the 
tenth,  or  the  one  himdreth  part  of  a  dollar.  Now  if  it 
be  inconvenient  to  reckon  in  such  fractions,  it  would  be 
impossible  to  use  such  little  bits  of  gold  as  would  be 


rOHBIDDEN   CALLINGS.  149 

worth  what  a  cent  represents,  or  even  what  a  dime  does. 
Some  of  such  pieces  would  be  so  small  as  to  be  almost 
invisible,  most  of  them  would  be  constantly  lost,  and 
would  very  rapidly  wear  out.  It  is  therefore  the  prac- 
tice of  this  country,  and  of  other  coimtries,  to  use  pieces 
of  silver  and  bronze  or  copper  to  denote  those  fractions 
of  a  sovereign,  or  whatever  else  may  be  the  measure  of 
price. 

If  the  Government  issues  these  pieces  of  silver  and 
copper,  and  pledges  itself  to  take  them  back  at  the  rate 
of  ten  dimes,  or  one  hundred  cents  to  a  dollar,  these 
coins  will  be  worth  what  they  profess  to  be,  even  though 
the  amount  of  silver  or  copper  contained  in  them  may 
not  be  actually  worth  the  tenth  and  one  hundredth  part 
of  the  piece  of  gold  we  call  a  dollar.  Now  during  the 
time  that  such  pieces  are  in  circulation,  the  Government 
is  making  a  profit  on  the  dilference  between  the  real  and 
the  nominal  value  of  the  silver  and  copper  coins.  Tliis 
profit  is  devoted  to  two  objects.  It  covers,  in  the  first 
place,  the  cost  of  coming  gold,  the  Mint  being  enabled 
to  do  this  at  no  charge  whatever.  It  covers  the  cost 
of  the  wear  of  silver  and  copper  coins;  for  however 
much  worn  silver  coins  are,  the  Government  will  ex- 
change these  coins  for  new  coins  of  full  weight.  The 
action  of  the  Mint,  therefore,  is  that  of  doing  a  great 
public  service  at  no  cost  to  the  public.'' 


* 


*At  the  date  when  this  is  \\Titton  (June,  1872)  gold  and  silver 
coins  are  not  in  use  in  the  United  States.  They  were  used  until 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war  in  1861,  when  paper  currency,  which 
had  before  been  used  for  nothing  smaller  than  a  dollar,  was  intro- 
duced for  dimes,  quarter  dollars  and  half  dollars.  The  credit  of 
the  Government  having  been  depreciated  by  the  risks  and  losses 
of  the  war,  its  paper  "  promises  to  pay"  are  not  yet  worth  as  much 


150  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

If  private  persons  were  allowed  to  coin  silver  and 
copper  at  their  own  will,  part  of  the  advantage  which 
the  Mint  gets  and  gives  to  the  public  would  become  a 
matter  of  private  profit.  Were  private  coining  carried 
out  on  a  large  scale,  the  Mint  would  be  obliged  to  j^ut 
a  tax  on  the  people  in  order  to  cover  its  expenses,  or  to 
charge  the  public  for  coining  its  gold. 

But  tliere  is  a  stronger  reason  for  keeping  the  right 
of  coining  money  in  the  hands  of  the  Government.  It 
is  A-ery  difficult  for  any  person  to  find  out  when  gold 
and  silver  are  mixed  with  inferior  metals,  unless  the  lat- 
ter is  mixed  to  a  large  amount.  Unfortunately,  when 
frauds  cannot  be  found  out,  many  people  are  ready  to 
practise  them,  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
if  freedom  in  coining  were  allowed,  it  would  very  soon 
become  freedom  for  swindling. 

There  are  certain  occupations  which  are  not  only 
illegal  but  unlawful — ^.e.,  are  so  bad  in  themselves  that 
they  are  not  allowed  at  all.  Thus,  for  example,  English 
law  forbids  the  establishment  of  gambling-houses.  Now, 
in  one  sense,  there  is  a  kind  of  gambling  which  nobody 
can  prevent.  If  a  man  engages  to  buy  any  goods  on 
what  is  called  speculation — that  is,  in  the  hope  that  he 
will  hereafter  get  a  better  price  for  what  he  buys  than 
could  be  got  at  present — he  may  be  said  to  gamble,  for 
he  is  risking  his  property  on  an  uncertainty.     But  no 

as  gold  and  silver.  Each  year  since  tlie  close  of  the  war  they 
have  come  a  little  nearer  to  the  value  of  specie ;  and  doubtless  in 
the  course  of  a  year  or  two,  they  will  again  be  taken  equally  with 
specie  for  the  full  amount  of  their  nominal  value.  When  this 
comes  about,  gold  and  silver  coins  now  hoarded  iip,  or  withdrawn 
from  the  country,  will  reappear,  and  be  used  as  far  as  is  found 
conveikient. — EDITOR. 


FOUBIDDEN  CALLINGS.  151 

law  should  ever  interfere  with  this  kind  of  speculation, 
partly  because  it  is  a  necessary  part  of  trade,  partly  be- 
cause the  practice  does  a  real  good,  by  bringing  about  a 
thrifty  use  of  articles  when  they  are  dear,  and  a  prudent 
use  of  them  when  they  are  cheap. 

But  the  law  interferes  with  gambling  when  no  possi- 
ble good  can  come  to  the  public  by  the  practice,  and 
when  it  is  probable  or  certain  that  clever  persons  will 
cheat  less  shrewd  people  by  apparent  fairness.  No  pos- 
sible good  can  come  to  society  by  betting  on  the  success 
of  a  particular  horse  in  a  race,  while  a  great  many  worth- 
less people  live,  and  a  great  deal  of  dishonesty  is  prac- 
tised in  connection  with  such  wagers.  It  is  doubtful, 
indeed,  whether  it  be  wagering  or  drimkenness  which  is 
the  most  pov^-erful  cause  of  ruin  or  crime.  Still  there 
is  a  certain  amount  of  openness  in  this  kind  of  specula- 
tion. The  case  is  far  worse  when  certain  parties  set  up 
a  gaming-booth,  the  players  at  which  must  certainly  lose, 
however  fau'  the  game  may  seem ;  or  when  some  wager 
is  laid  on  a  conjuring  trick,  which  the  inexperienced 
cannot  see  through.  On  such  practices  as  these  the  law 
lays  penalties,  not  only  because  the  public  ought  to  be 
protected  against  cheats,  but  because  ivt  is  a  crime  to 
cheat,  and  those  who  are  cheated  are  tempted  to  dis- 
honesty by  their  losses. 


LESSON  xxxm. 

CALLDTaS  WHICH  AEE  UNDER  A  POLICE. 

There  are  certain  occupations,  again,  entrance  into 
which  is  free,  or  nearly  fi-ee  to  anybody  who  chooses  to 
engage  in  them,  but  in  which  the  persons  who  follow 
the  calling  are  brought  under  stricter  regulation  than 
those  who  are  engaged  in  ordinary  trades  or  professions, 
and  are  rendered  liable  to  police  regulations.  Some  of 
these  restraints  are  imposed  in  the  interests  of  the  reve- 
nue, some  in  the  interests  of  the  public.  Of  those  which 
are  imposed  in  the  interests  of  the  public,  some  respect 
its  safety  or  comfort,  some  its  morals  or  conduct. 

Of  these  occupations,  the  most  notable  instance  or 
example  is  that  of  the  persons  who  are  engaged  in  the 
sale  of  fermented  or  intoxicating  drinks.  Such  persons, 
before  they  can  follow  this  calling,  are  obliged  to  get 
some  evidence  of  their  character.  They  are  called  on 
to  pay  a  sum  of  money  for  permission  to  keep  their  shop 
open  at  all.  They  are  compelled  to  close  the  place  in 
which  they  carry  on  their  business  at  certain  hours  of 
the  night,  and  on  Sundays  during  certain  hours  of 
the  day.  They  are  at  all  times  liable  to  the  visits  of  the 
police.  If  they  break  the  rules  under  which  they  are 
allowed  to  carry  on  their  trade,  they  may  be  disabled 
from  carrying  on  their  business  at  all,  or  in  other  words 


CALLINGS  ^'HICH  ARE   UNDER  A  POLICE.   153 

be  refused  their  license.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that 
such  persons  are  restrained  or  controlled  in  a  great  manjr 
directions  m  which  ordinary  traders  are  free. 

These  restraints  are  imposed  partly  in  order  to  assist 
the  morals  and  health  of  the  people ;  partly  in  order  to 
prevent  breaches  of  public  order  and  crime.  The  police 
authority  which  is  exercised  over  public-houses,  was  first 
established  because  it  was  thought  to  be  a  duty  to  keep 
people  from  some  temptations  to  drunkenness  But  it 
is  upheld  quite  as  much  because  drunken  people  are  apt 
to  be  violent,  and  becaue  public-houses  may  be,  and  in- 
deed often  are,  places  where  crimes  are  hatched.  Of 
course,  such  a  use  of  them  applies  only  to  a  very  limited 
number,  but  unless  the  same  regulation  were  extended 
to  all,  it  would  be  impossible  to  deal  with  the  cases  in 
which  the  abuse  might  occur.  Similarly,  as  the  vendors 
of  unwholesome  drinks  do  a  great  mischief,  it  seems 
natural  that  the  public  should  be  protected  against  frauds, 
the  effects  of  which  might  be  very  baneful. 

Again,  there  is  another  class  of  traders  which  is  put 
under  restraints  nearly  as  strict  as  those  laid  on  the 
keepers  of  public-houses.  This  trade  is  that  of  a  pawn- 
broker. This  sort  of  calling  is,  unfortunately,  a  very 
necessary  one  for  the  poor,  whose  fortunes  are  frequently 
so  much  depressed,  that  they  are  obliged  to  borrow 
small  sums  on  the  security  of  such  property  as  they 
have.  Hence  it  has  been  said  that  the  pawnbroker 
may  be  called  the  poor  man's  banker.  But  the  circum- 
stances which  make  such  a  person  useful  to  those  whose 
means  are  very  narrow,  render  the  shop  of  a  pawn- 
broker a  very  convenient  place  for  the  sale  of  stolen 
goods.  The  pledge  which  is  deposited  must  not  bo 
sold  for  a  given  time,  and  hence  il"  the  article  has  been 


154  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

Stolen,  and  the  pawnbroker  is  unsuspicious,  still  more 
if  he  is  tacitly  in  league  with  the  thief,  all  trace  of  the 
article  may  be  lost  for  so  long  a  time  as,  in  a  great  many 
cases,  to  defy  detection.  For  this  reason  this  calling  is 
one  which  is  brought  considerably  within  police  control, 
the  public  good  curtailing  the  freedom  which  trade 
should  generally  enjoy. 

Again,  it  is  believed  to  be  a  necessary  protection  to 
public  morals  that  theatres  and  places  of  public  amuse- 
ment should  be  controlled.  What  mio-ht  be  amusinor 
may  easily  become  vicious,  and  may  consequently  do  a 
great  deal  of  mischief  There  are  a  great  many  things 
which  had  better  not  be  talked  about,  and  many  more 
which  had  better  not  be  seen.  It  may  therefore  be 
right  and  proper  that  they  who  wish  to  talk  about  and 
exhibit  such  things  should  be  checked  from  doing  so. 

Some  callings  are  regulated  with  a  view  to  the  public 
safety.  No  Government,  unless  it  were  wholly  careless, 
would  allow  a  manufactory  of  gimpowder  to  be  set  up 
in  a  crowded  town,  or  indeed  in  any  place  but  that  in 
Avhich  the  least  possible  injury  could  be  done  by  any 
accident.  So  with  manufacturers  of  fireworks  and  of 
similarly  explosive  ai'ticles.  Even  the  storing  of  gun- 
powder in  a  town  is — or  ought  to  be — forbidden,  or  at 
least  watched  with  great  care.  They  who  are  familiar 
with  danger  get  careless  in  taking  proper  precautions 
against  it.  It  is  said  that  half  the  terrible  accidents  in 
coal-mines  are  the  direct  consequence  of  carelessness, 
and  that  they  would  never  have  occurred  if  miners  and 
owi::ers  of  collieries  were  only  commonly  prudent. 

Lastly,  there  are  certain  callings  on  the  jiroduct  of 
which  the  Government  collects  a  tax.  It  does  so  on  all 
fermented   Uquors   which   are   manufactured   for    sale. 


CALLIXaS  WHICH  ARE  UNDER  A  POLICE.    I55 

Such,  for  example,  are  the  trades  of  the  brewer,  the 
maltster,  and  the  distiller.  If  there  were  no  (superin- 
tendence exercised  over  these  callings,  and  they  who 
engaged  in  them  were  allowed  to  return  to  the  proper 
officers  what  they  said  they  had  produced,  without  any 
inquiry  or  scrutiny  into  the  truth  of  their  statements,  it 
is  very  likely  that  some  persons  would  state  what  was 
false.  In  such  a  case  two  wrSngs  are  done.  One  of 
these  is  to  the  public  at  large,  which  has,  by  proper 
authority,  imposed  a  tax  on  such  and  such  articles,  with 
a  view  to  meet  pubUc  expenses.  The  other  is  to  the 
fair  dealer,  who  having  paid  what  is  due  on  his  own 
part,  is  trading  against  and  along  with  a  man  who  has 
taken  an  unfair  advantage. 

In  countries  in  which  a  great  number  of  foreign 
articles  are  taxed,  the  business  of  the  unfair  shipper — ■ 
or,  as  he  is  called,  the  smuggler — ^is  followed  by  many 
persons.  As  to  many  there  seems  to  be  no  justice  in 
the  laws  which  Governments  impose  for  the  sake  of 
preventing  the  use  of  foreign-made  goods,  very  many 
people  encourage  the  smuggler  in  his  calling.  Now 
that,  however,  a  wiser  notion  of  trade  commences  to 
prevail,  the  smuggler  is  considered  but  a  vulgar  cheat, 
who  not  only  defrauds  the  Government,  but  will  most 
likely  defraud  those  who  are  foolish  enough  to  have 
dealings  with  him. 


LESSON  XXXIV. 

POOK-LAWS. 

They  who  will  not  work  for  themselves  have  no 
right  to  live  on  the  labor  of  others.  To  claim  that  they 
should  so  live,  either  wholly  or  partly,  is  to  demand 
that  the  laws  which  govern  society,  and  by  which  it 
subsists,  should  be  suspended  in  their  favor. 

But  that  which  they  have  no  right  to  claim,  society 
may  be  generous  enough  to  grant,  and  that  for  very 
good  reasons.  In  most  countries  the  law  allows  no  one 
to  perish  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  if  the 
destitute  person  make  application  to  those  who  are 
appointed  to  the  duty  of  relieving  this  distress;  in 
other  words,  the  relief  of  the  poor,  by  means  of  a  great 
public  charity,  is  established  by  law.  Of  course  .the  law 
intends  that  this  charity  should  not  be  abused;  that 
persons  should  not  have  the  assistance  unless  they  are 
really  destitute ;  that  it  should  be  only  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  and  that  the  relief  should  not  be  of  such 
a  character  as  to  make  people  careless  or  improvident. 

The  laws  of  most  civilized  countries  then,  acknowl- 
edge that  every  living  person  has  a  right  to  the  means 
of  life.  It  is  probable  that  the  origin  of  this  rule  of  our 
law  was  a  sense  of  religious  duty.  But  the  custom  is 
defended  for  other  reasons.    To  see  human  misery,  and 


POOE-LAWS.  157 

to  aWovr  it  to  be  unrelieved,  is  apt  to  harden  the  heart, 
to  make  men  cruel.  Now  it  is  better  that  this  relief 
should  be  given  on  system,  rather  than  by  the  hand  of 
private  charity,  which  is  often  indiscreet,  and  must  be 
partial.  Besides,  even  where  the  relief  of  distress  is 
very  sparingly  allowed  by  law,  it  is  found  necessary  to 
check  begging.  Again,  since  the  mass  of  those  who 
obtain  relief  have  passed  or  are  passing  a  life  of  toil, 
and  as  it  often  happens  that  the  wages  received  are  not 
in  proportion  to  the  work  which  has  been  done,  and  its 
value,  it  is  thought  that  they  who  have  worked  for  others 
should  live,  partly  at  least,  on  the  labor  of  others. 
Again,  there  are  many  misfortunes  which  no  human  fore- 
sight can  prevent,  and  these,  it  is  said,  common  humanity 
should  constrain  iis  to  succor.  It  is  moreover  asserted 
that  society  is  saved  from  risks  of  a  very  serious  kind 
as  long  as  destitute  persons  are  not  made  desperate  and 
therefore  dangerous. 

There  is  much  force  in  these  arguments.  It  is  wor- 
thy of  note  that  in  those  countries  where  distress  is  not 
relieved  by  law,  another  claim  is  set  up — the  right  to 
work  or  employment.  There  are  many  who  say  that  as 
long  as  people  are  willing  to  work,  society  or  the  State 
'ought  to  find  them  occupation.  But  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  difference  between  these  two  demands — every- 
body has  a  right  to  subsist :  everybody  has  a  right  to 
work. 

If  you  have  read  this  little  book  to  any  advantage, 
you  will  have  seen  that  by  far  the  largest  number  of 
people  in  every  country  do  work ;  that  they  work  best 
when  they  choose  for  themselves  that  kind  of  labor  for 
which  they  find  themselves  most  fit,  and  that  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  Government  to  parcel  out  work  for  each 


158  SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

person  is  no  very  wise  act.  A  man  with  a  great  estate, 
or  a  great  business,  often  works  very  hard  indeed — per- 
haps harder  by  far  than  any  who  labor  for  ordinary 
wages. 

Now  if  this  right  to  labor  were  maintained,  every- 
body who  is  Avilling  and  able  to  work  should  be  pro- 
vided with  his  own  special  kind  of  industry.  It  is  not 
sufficient  only  that  that  the  carpenter,  the  mason,  the 
compositor,  the  tailor,  the  shoemaker,  the  baker,  and 
others  who  are  occupied  in  manual  employments,  should 
be  fomid  work ;  but  other  persons  must  be  equally  cared 
for — the  doctor  ought  to  be  supplied  with  patients,  the 
lawyer  with  clients,  the  shopkeeper  with  customers,  the 
teacher  with  pupils,  the  author  with  readers  of  his  books. 
I  do  not  think  it  will  be  difficult  for  you  to  see  that  such 
an  undertaking  would  induce  utter  confusion — is,  indeed, 
a  manifest  absurdity.  It  will  be  plain  also,  that  under 
such  circumstances,  most  of  the  motives  which  induce 
men  to  improve  their  work  would  be  taken  away. 

If  it  be  answered  that  they  who  make  this  proposal 
do  not  intend  their  rule  to  apply  to  any  but  certain  kinds 
of  labor,  then  it  is  plain  that  they  are  asking  that  cer- 
tain workmen  should  live  on  the  labor  of  other  work- 
men, and  that  they  are  attempting  to  draw  a  line  which 
cannot  be  drawn  with  fairness.  For  unless  some  prin- 
ciple be  laid  down  which  shall  decide  what  kind  of 
laborers  must  be  provided  with  emplojTnent,  all  that 
the  proposal  means  is  that  certain  persons  should  be 
treated  with  favor  at  the  expense  of  other  persons. 

There  is  one  dano-er  attendina;  the  law  which  relieves 
the  destitute.  I  have  already  spoken  of  it,  when  I  said 
that  it  may  make  j^eople  careless  or  improvident.  To 
take  away  the  motives  to  foresight  and  thrift  is  a  serious 


POOR-LAWS.  159 

evil,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  there  have  been  times 
when  assistance  has  been  given  so  indiscreetly  that  work- 
ing men  have  been  degraded  by  it. 

The  only  way  in  M'hich  this  danger  can  be  avoided 
is  by  making  the  acceptance  of  relief  very  irksome  to 
those  who  receive  it,  while  they  are  able  to  work,  by 
raising  up  a  wholesome  feeling  that  it  is  disgraceful  for 
strong  men  and  women  to  get  their  living  at  the  expense 
of  other  people,  and  only  a  little  less  disgraceful  for 
persons  not  to  provide,  when  they  are  strong  and  in  full 
work,  against  the  risks  of  sickness  and  want  of  employ- 
ment. If  working  men  had  only  common  prudence  and 
forethought,  there  would  be  very  little  real  poverty  in 
this  country.  Distress  does  not  often  come  because 
there  are  too  many  workmen  for  the  employment  that 
miirht  be  got,  but  because  the  workman  lives  from  hand 
to  mouth. 

Those  poor  persons  are  most  to  be  pitied,  and  have 
the  best  title  to  public  charity,  who  are  not  themselves 
to  blame  for  the  poverty  in  which  they  are  placed.  Such 
are  the  destitute  and  orphan  cliildren  of  the  poor.  Such 
are  also  a  great  many  women,  employment  for  whom  is 
scanty  and  ill-paid.  Perhaps  in  such  cases  the  law  might 
incline  a  little  towards  finding  a  field  for  labor.  Now  it 
is  not  always  easy  to  find  such  labor  at  home ;  but  there 
are  many  colonies  and  territories  where  women's  labor 
is  very  scarce,  and  where  children,  who  are  just  begin- 
nino-  to  be  able  to  work,  would  be  taken  and  well  cared 
for.  It  is  not  proper  to  send  vicious  or  idle  people  to 
a  newly-settled  country,  but  such  a  country  is  just  the 
place  for  those  who  are  willing  to  work,  and  find  little 
room  for  themselves  at  home. 


LESSON  XXXV. 

THE   PROTECTIOlf   OF  THE  WEAK. 

We  are  told  that  the  existing  races  of  animals  have 
BTirvived,  or  have  been  changed  from  ancient  forms  oi 
life,  because  they  have  had  certain  advantages  of  form 
or  structure,  by  which  they  have  been  enabled  to  live 
while  other  kinds  have  perished.  This  may  be  a  very 
good  account  of  the  way  in  which  most  animals  have 
successfully  struggled  for  existence,  but  it  does  not  cor- 
respond with  the  history  of  human  civilization. 

There  have  been  times  in  which  the  strong  habit- 
ually oppressed  the  weak;  in  which  inferior  races  of 
men — that  is,  those  nations  which  had  less  strength,  or 
skill  in  war — have  been  enslaved  and  destroyed  by  su- 
perior or  more  powerful  tribes,  in  which  therefore  the 
might  of  the  strongest  formed  the  rule  of  human  life. 
But  these  practices  prevailed  in  barbarous  ages,  and 
are  justly  condemned  by  good  sense  as  well  as  by  hu- 
manity. 

As  regards  man,  there  is  just  so  much  truth  in  the 
theory,  that  certain  races  grow  weaker  or  disappear 
before  others.  Thus  the  red  man  in  America  seems  to 
be  slowly  perishing  before  the  white.  So  does  the 
black  in  Australia  and  the  Maori  in  New  Zealand.  But 
there   are  other  peoples   which  are   able  to  exist  and 


POOR-LAWS.  IGl 

thrive,  even  when  they  are  brought  into  contact  Avitb 
the  most  highly-civilized  races,  or  are  placed  in  the 
most  unfavorable  circumstances.  Thus,  the  negro  does 
not  fail  before  the  white  man  in  Africa,  his  own  home, 
or  in  those  parts  of  the  American  continent  to  which  he 
has  been  forcibly  carried.  Nor  has  there  ever  been  any 
race  which  has  been,  one  would  have  thought,  so  con- 
stantly within  the  risk  of  being  destroyed  by  violence 
as  the  Jewish ;  but  the  Jews  present  one  of  the  highest 
types  of  civilization  and  strength. 

The  more  thoroughly  men  act  on  the  principles  of 
social  science,  and  on  the  laws  which  govern  society,  the 
more  tender  are  they  of  those  who  are  weak  and  help- 
less. The  reason  is  plain.  The  spirit  of  civilization  is 
that  of  law,  and  the  first  business  of  law  is  to  protect  the 
weak  against  the  strong — that  is,  to  resist  the  operation 
of  that  tendency  which  has  been  said  to  have  selected  in 
course  of  time  the  races  of  animals  which  exist  in  the 
world.  For  the  strength  of  social  life  consists  in  the 
helplessness  of  each  man  apart  from  his  fellow-men.  An 
individual  in  a  civilized  society  strives,  as  I  told  you  at 
first,  to  do  one  thing  only  in  the  best  possible  way.  A 
savage  is  obliged  to  do  every  thing  for  himself  In 
order  that  the  first  may  live  in  comfort,  he  should  be 
surrounded  by  as  many  persons  as  can  also  live  in  com- 
fort. >  In  order  that  the  savage  may  thrive  and  live  in 
plenty,  there  should  be  as  few  persons  as  possible  to 
share  existence  with  him. 

The  willingness  to  protect  the  weak  is  no  doubt, 
then,  derived  from  a  sense  of  self-interest.  Insecurity 
affects  everybody  more  or  less,  the  mass  of  men  most 
of  all.  Hence  it  is  often  necessary  in  a  civilized  country 
for  those  wbo  are  well-to-do  to  seek  how  they  may  bet- 


162  SOCIAL  ECONOMY. 

ter  the  condition  of  those  who  are  badly  off,  because  the 
neglect  of  svich  a  course  of  action  brings  inconvenience 
or  loss  or  evil  to  those  who  might  be  supposed  to  have 
no  connection  with  the  fortunes  of  others. 

For  example,  if  society  were  governed  only  by  the 
interest  of  the  strongest,  and  if  it  did  not  signify  what 
became  of  the  weak,  provided  that  interest  was  served, 
there  would  be  no  necessity  for  the  proper  administra- 
tion of  justice.  But  the  wealthiest  i:)erson  in  a  civilized 
community  needs  the  protection  of  the  law  as  much  as, 
perhaps  more  than,  an  ordinary  workman.  His  proper- 
ty, if  it  were  not  for  the  equal  protection  which  the  law 
affords,  might  be  exposed  to  injury,  rapine,  or  robbery 
from  a  thousand  quarters.  Unguarded  by  law,  he  is 
helpless  in  the  extreme.  Hence  it  has  always  happened 
in  the  history  of  the  various  steps  by  which  we  have 
gained  our  social  and  civil  liberties,  that  the  richest  men 
have  had  to  make  common  cause  with  the  people. 

Let  us  take  another  example.  In  times  bygone  no- 
body troubled  himself,  except  so  far  as  he  was  himself 
concerned,  with  the  laws  of  health.  Two  centuries  ago 
London  was  wasted  by  the  plague,  year  after  year.  The 
cause  was  the  great  filthiness  of  the  j^eople.  Since  that 
time  England  has  been  visited  with  several  diseases, 
which  have  been  more  or  less  deadly.  In  time  peo- 
ple began  to  notice  that  the  worst  ravages  of  these  dis- 
orders occurred  in  places  where  no  attention  was  paid 
to  cleanliness.  At  last  it  has  been  distinctly  understood 
that  there  are  very  few  complaints  of  an  infectious  kind 
which  cannot  be  prevented  by  attention  to  certain  rules, 
and  that  if  persons  would  abide  by  these  rules  many 
plagues  would  disappear. 

It  is  not  enough,  however,  that  this  or  that  man 


POOR-LATH'S.  1C3 

should  regularly  wash  himself,  wear  clean  linen,  or  other 
clothing,  take  care  to  live  in  a  house  which  is  kept  pure, 
and  provide  himself  "with  wholesome  food  and  water ;  it 
is  found  to  be  of  importance  that  his  neighbor  should  do 
too.  Hence  the  public  health  has  come  to  be  a  matter 
of  great  consideration,  and  although  much  remains  to 
be  done  before  cleanliness  is  imiversal,  there  is  a  great 
diflerence  between  the  j^resent  and  the  past.  We  have 
found  oiit  at  last  that  the  best  way  to  keep  one's  self  in 
safety  is  to  better  the  condition  of  one's  neighbor. 

There  is  not  a  single  law  of  nature  which  is  contrary 
to  or  inconsistent  with  any  other  law.  Take,  if  you 
choose,  society,  and  consider  the  members  of  it  as  pur- 
suing only  their  private  interest,  and  you  will  find  that 
they  Avill  pursue  it  best,  if  they  follow  exactly  the  course 
of  action  which  duty  would  bid  them  adopt ;  that  vice 
and  loss  are  the  same  things ;  that  virtue  and  gain  cor- 
respond in  the  long  run.  In  the  same  way  it  will  be 
discovered  that  the  laws  of  health  are  only  another  form 
of  the  laws  of  prudence  and  good  sense ;  that  what  is 
foolish  is  wrong,  and  that  what  is  wise  is  right. 

But  if  this  be  the  case,  how  is  it  that  the  world  is  so 
full  of  vice,  crime,  misery,  poverty  ?  It  is  because  people 
are  always  jireferring  the  present  to  the  future,  neglect- 
ing what  conscience  prompts  and  experience  affirms,  for 
the  sake  of  some  immediate  temptation  or  pleasure.  It 
is  the  faculty  of  man  to  remember  in  order  that  he  may 
foresee.  Kor  can  people  begin  the  practice  of  foresight 
too  young.  At  first  they  use  the  wise  and  atiectionate 
experience  of  their  elders.  In  time  they  find  out  that 
what  was  at  first  without  meaning  or  reason  to  them  ia 
full  of  truth  and  order ;  and  that  if  they  please  they  can 
gee  and  work  with  the  truth  and  wisdom  which  they 
have  learned. 


LESSON  XXXVI 

EMIGKATION". 

Let  it  be  supposed  that  too  many  persons  are  living 
m  any  country  to  be  comfortable,  or  even  to  subsist 
decently,  either  because  some  sudden  scarcity  has  oc- 
curred, or  because  some  dearth  of  employment  has 
arisen.  How  far  can  such  persons  be  put  into  a  position 
to  better  themselves  by  emigrating  to  colonies  or  new 
settlements  ? 

There  is  one  way  in  which  a  country  may  b.e  relievea 
of  lan  excess  of  inhabitants.  A  whole  slice,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  community  may  be  taken — from  the  highest  and 
richest  personages  down  to  the  poorest  and  lowest —  and 
this  may  be  transplanted  bodily  to  the  new  country.  In 
such  a  scheme  there  must  be  some  persons  of  all  ranks, 
conditions  and  callings.  •  But  this  means  of  relieving 
any  community  of  an  excess  of  persons  has  never  been 
adopted  in  modern  times ;  it  used  to  be  done  anciently. 

Now  it  is  quite  clear  that  society  would  be  all  the 
better  if  it  could  get  rid  of  its  worst  people.  At  one 
time  the  Government  of  England  used  to  carry  out  such 
a  plan ;  but  it  has  now  abandoned  it.  It  is  plainly  wrong 
to  take  or  transport  such  persons  to  a  place  where  other 
and  honest  people  live.  It  is  the  same  sort  of  thing  as 
putting  all  one's  refuse  into  another  person's  house. 
And  even  if  no  honest  people  lived  in  the  settlement,  it 


EMIGRATION.  1(35 

is  a  very  serious  or  dangerous  act  to  try  to  make  a 
colony  of  the  worst  kind  of  people. 

Xext,  it  would  be  a  good  thing  if  all  the  idle  people 
could  go ;  but  it  would  not  be  right  to,  force  them,  and 
it  is  perfectly  clear  that  they  will  not  do  so  of  their  own 
accord.  There  is  no  room  for  idle  people  in  a  new  set- 
tlement. They  would  find  it  difficult  to  get  such  enjoy- 
ments as  are  to  be  got  in  a  country  where  there  is  a 
crowd,  and  where  any  one  M'ho  spends  is  welcome.  But 
it  is  clear  that  idle  people,  and  those  who  follow  callings 
which  add  nothing  to  wealth,  or  who  exercise  no  profit- 
able labor,  are  the  plainest  examples  of  an  excess  of 
persons.  They  do  no  real  work,  and  they  compete 
asrainst  others  for  the  means  of  life.  But  it  is  also  clear 
that  the  colonists  would  not  care  to  have  them. 

Nor  would  those  go  who  cannot  work  for  their  own 
living.  This  is  another  class  of  persons  who  are  in 
excess.  If  there  were  no  inmates  of  workhouses,  it  is 
plain  that  the  country  would  be  the  better  off;  but  no 
society  would  be  better  off  by  gaining  those  who  are 
obliged  to  be  inmates  of  workhouses,  because  they  can- 
not get  their  own  living.  It  is  not  easy  to  get  rid  of 
thieves,  idlers,  and  paupers. 

A  colony  is  anxious  to  take  those  only  who  are  wil- 
ling to  work,  and  able  to  work  with  advantage.  Many 
people  are  willing  to  work,  but  unluckily  their  work  is 
not  wanted. 

It  will  always,  for  instance,  take  agricultural  laborers. 
The  reason  is  clear :  the  natural  industry  of  a  colony  is 
asrriculture.  A  laborer  who  can  do  agricultural  work  in 
all  its  branches  is  always  serviceable,  but  in  a  colony  he 
is  wo)-th  any  pains  to  get.  It  is  unfortunate  for  such 
laborers  that  they  are  usually  so  poor  that  they  cannot 


166  SOCIAL  ECONOMY 

get  away ;  generally  so  ignorant  of  any  thing  but  the 
work  which  they  do  so  well,  that  they  do  not  know  how 
to  better  themselves.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  if  they 
did  leave  this  country  it  would  be  a  gain  to  them.  It 
would  be  no  advantage  to  the  country  which  they  leave. 

A  handy  artisan,  like  a  carpenter  or  mason,  and 
especially  such  an  artisan  as  can  do  a  number  of  things, 
is,  after  the  agricultural  laborer,  the  best  sort  of  person 
to  get  on  in  a  new  settlement.  His  work  is  always 
wanted,  he  can  get  regular  employment ;  and  if,  in  addi- 
tion to  what  he  actually  knows,  he  is  also  drilled  so  well 
in  what  I  called  in  a  former  lesson  the  master-knowledge, 
that  he  can  easily  learn  how  to  do  other  things,  he  is 
still  more  sure  to  succeed. 

A  jack-of-all-trades  in  a  thickly-peopled  country  is 
not  very  likely  to  prosper ;  but  a  jack-of-all-trades  in  a 
new  country,  provided  he  be  industrious  and  honest,  has 
every  chance  of  success. 

Again,  a  person  who  is  able  to  get  his  living  in  a 
thickly-peopled  country,  will  very  often  find  that  there  is 
no  place  for  him  in  a  new  settlement.  He  may  be 
honest,  industrious,  intelligent ;  but  he  may  find  no  room 
for  his  work,  his  character,  or  his  abilities.  The  reason 
for  this  is  as  follows  : — 

You  have  learned  in  former  lessons  how  it  is  that  in 
a  country  like  our  own,  the  division  of  employments  is 
carried  out  to  the  fullest  extent.  It  is  discovered  that 
the  greatest  quickness  and  power  is  attained,  when  each 
.person  does  one  thing,  or  a  part  of  one  thing.  Now  the 
greater  the  quickness  and  power,  the  greater  is  the 
cheapness;  or,  in  other  words,  the  more  fully  is  the 
article  on  which  the  workman  is  employed,  supj)lied  for 
the  wants  of  those  who  need  it. 


EMIGEATION.  1(37 

But  in  a  new  country  no  such  rule  holds.  In  course 
of  time,  no  doubt,  the  same  cause  which  brings  about 
this  division  of  employment  will  work  in  such  countries. 
They  will  then  become  like  such  places  as  those  which 
supply  new-comers  to  new  settlements  ;  but  till  such  a 
state  of  things  takes  place,  the  most  useful  persons  are 
not  those  who  can  do  a  part  of  one  thing,  but  those  who 
can  do  the  whole  of  a  great  many  things ;  and  thus  the 
more  completely  persons  are  trained  to  do  one  thing,  or 
the  part  of  one  thing  only,  the  less  fitted  are  they  to 
become  colonists  in  a  new  settlement. 

Now  what  is  the  result  of  these  facts  ?  It  is  that  old 
and  fully-settled  countries  will  be  found  to  stand  to  these 
new  coimtries  in  much  the  same  position  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  a  town  do  to  those  of  the  country.  Each  does 
the  other  a  great  service.  The  town  makes  the  comforts 
of  life  easier  of  attainment ;  the  country  supplies  the 
necessaries  of  life  more  regularly  and  certainly.  If  men 
really  imderstood  their  own  interest  and  their  own  good, 
ihey  would  look  on  the  whole  civilized  Avorld  as  one 
country,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  obliged  to  discover 
that  they  can  gain  their  own  ends  best  when  they  do 
most  for  the  service  and  good  of  others. 


THE     END. 


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17.  SYSTEMATIC  AND  ECONOMIC  BOTANY.     By  J.  H.  Balfour, 
M.D.,  Edinburgh  University. 

19.  METALLURGY.     By  John  Mayer,  F.C.S.,  Glasgow. 

20.  NAVIGATION.     By  Henry  Evers,  LL.D.,  Plymouth. 

21.  NAUTICAL  ASTRONOMY.     By  Henry  Evers,  LL.D. 
22A STEAM  AND  THE  STEAM  ENGINE— Land   and    Marink, 

By  Henry  Evers,  LL.D.,  Plymouth. 
22D  STEAM    AND    STEAM    ENGINE— Locomotive.     By    Henry 
Evers,  LL.D.,  Plymoulli. 

23.  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY.     By  John  Macturk,  F.R.G.S. 

24.  PRACTICAL  CHE.MISTRY.     By  John  Howard,  London. 
By  J.  J.  Plummer,  Observatory,  Duihara. 

JAl  •  Olii  ^  °^  ^'^^  Elementary  Series  are  now  ready. 

13,  16,  20,  22A,  22B,  23  and  25. 

.    ^  /in  raoid  succession. 

AGO 


